"Supplies of petroleum products, public equipment and technical means, which are freely sold and bought all over the world, have been suddenly declared illegal by the US authorities. Why? Only because it is done for the good of Russia. The political connotation of these accusations is obvious," the governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory said on Telegram.
On Wednesday, the US Department of Justice charged two oil traders and five Russian citizens, including Artem Uss, with sanctions evasion and money laundering.
"Today, in coordination with the US Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated a Russian network that procured military and sensitive dual-use technologies from US manufacturers and supplied them to Russian end-users," the Treasury Department said in a statement.
Artem Uss and Yury Orekhov are accused of using false documents to purchase sensitive US military equipment to provide it to the Russian defense sector. Uss was immediately arrested in Italy. He is now awaiting extradition to the United States.
The companies linked to Orekhov, Nord-Deutsche Industrieanlagenbau GmbH and Opus Energy Trading LLC, were also sanctioned.
On February 24, Russia began a military operation in Ukraine after calls for help from the republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. Western countries and their allies have rolled out a comprehensive sanctions campaign against Moscow in response. The measures included, among other things, sanctions against Russian oligarchs, officials and their family members, as well as individuals and entities supporting Russia's military operation. Alexander Uss is among the sanctioned individuals.