A view shows trucks, following a ban on the movement of goods under EU sanctions, in Kaliningrad, Russia on June 21, 2022.
Brussels, September 2, 2011 (FBC) Russia is trying to bypass Western sanctions on high-tech equipment for military and energy use, but is struggling to find international funding, US Department of State sanctions coordinator James O’ Brian said on Friday.
Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan and Britain imposed heavy sanctions on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine in February, denying it access to its own foreign exchange reserves, financial markets and advanced Western technology to reduce the Kremlin’s ability to wage war.
“We will see if the sanctions work,” O’Brien told reporters during a visit to Brussels for talks with EU officials. “We know that Russia is trying to get equipment and financing. We don’t think it’s doing well.”
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“We see a lot of substitution of low-quality equipment: consumer-grade electronics for military-grade targeting and communications equipment,” he said. “If you want to use it for an unintended purpose, that’s fine to do it yourself, but it’s not the way to run a modern armed conflict or economy.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin says the West’s economic “blitzkrieg” has failed, but acknowledges damage to the $1.8 trillion economy.
Some EU officials are concerned that China or India could help Moscow bypass sanctions by selling them two-use weapons for military use, but O’Brien said Russia has tried and failed to get material that way.
“Russia is now in a situation where it is necessary to buy from unknown sellers at unknown prices and get low-quality equipment. There is no way to run a modern economy on this basis,” he said.
Western countries have said they want to put pressure on Moscow in the coming months, closing potential loopholes in sanctions and focusing particularly on “bottlenecks” in the Russian economy.
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Reporting by Jan Strupczewski, Editing by William McLean
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