The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on five Russian banks and one individual. Restrictions were introduced due to financial transactions with the DPRK.
Points of attention
- The US has imposed sanctions on Russian banks because of their financial transactions with North Korea.
- Russia created illegal schemes to help North Korea circumvent Western sanctions.
- New restrictions were introduced against five banks and one individual.
The USA introduced sanctions against the banks of the Russian Federation
Russia created and used illegal financial schemes that gave North Korea access to the international banking system. That is, the Russian Federation helped the DPRK to bypass Western sanctions.
Today, OFAC imposed sanctions against a network of five entities and one individual located in Russia and the Russian-occupied Georgian region of South Ossetia for facilitating the creation of illegal payment mechanisms between Russia and the DPRK.
New restrictions have been introduced against the following organizations:
MRB-Bank (operates on the territory of occupied South Ossetia);
TMSR-Bank and head Dmytro Nikulin;
"Stroytrade" LLC;
JSC "Timer Bank";
JSC "Bank of the Russian Financial Corporation".
The US Treasury accuses them of providing financial, material and technological services to the North Korean government.
The list included institutions that cooperated with the sanctioned North Korean banks Foreign Trade Bank (FTB) and Korea Kwangson Banking Corporation (KKBC).
Cooperation between the Russian Federation and the DPRK
The dictatorial regimes began to actively converge after the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.
The Russian Federation helps the DPRK to circumvent Western sanctions, in return it receives weapons.
Pyongyang transferred ballistic missiles and artillery shells to Moscow. The Russian Armed Forces were the last to use it on the battlefield.
Russia bombarded Ukrainian cities with North Korean missiles. However, air missiles from the DPRK showed low efficiency, because more than half of them go off course and do not reach the target.
