America “Dramatically” Expands Sanctions on Russia, Targets Chinese Companies

I don’t really think it’s possible to expand sanctions on Russia very much.

You can definitely target China more, however.

Reuters:

The United States on Wednesday dramatically broadened sanctions on Russia, including by targeting China-based companies selling semiconductors to Moscow, as part of its effort to undercut the Russian military machine waging war on Ukraine.

Among the steps, the U.S. Treasury said it was raising “the risk of secondary sanctions for foreign financial institutions that deal with Russia’s war economy,” effectively threatening them with losing access to the U.S. financial system.

It also said it was moving to restrict the Russian military industrial base’s ability to exploit certain U.S. software and information technology services and, with the State Department, targeting more than 300 individuals and entities in Russia and beyond, including in Asia, Europe and Africa.

Separately, the Commerce Department said it was targeting shell companies in Hong Kong for diverting semiconductors to Russia, taking steps that would affect nearly $100 million of high-priority items for Moscow including such chips.

It will also expand its lists of items Russia cannot import from other nations to cover not just U.S.-origin products but U.S.-branded goods, meaning those made with U.S. intellectual property or technology, a senior Commerce official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

Peter Harrell, who served as White House senior director for international economics in 2021 and 2022, described the latest sanctions as a “paradigm shift,” partly because they expose foreign banks to the risk of being cut off from the U.S. financial system if they deal with key large Russian banks.

The US is establishing a new Cold War order because some people don’t want to have gay sex with men.