Radioavtomatika specialises in providing foreign equipment for Russia’s defence industry. Photo credit: Freepik.
Washington, May 20 (CTK) – The Versvet company, seated in the Czech Republic, is among the targets of a new package of anti-Russian sanctions issued by the United States, as it helped a Russian firm circumvent trade restrictions, the US Treasury Department has announced.
The Czech Finance Ministry told CTK that it can only enforce sanctions appearing on the lists of the EU, the UN, and the Czech Republic’s own national list of sanctions.
According to Washington, the company was involved in the Russian firm Radioavtomatika’s efforts to import electronics despite being placed on the sanction list since the start of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
Radioavtomatika specialises in providing foreign equipment for Russia’s defence industry and has repeatedly sought to import it through various intermediaries since it was sanctioned last year. One of them was Versvet, which is owned and controlled by Russian citizen Svetlana Verkhovtseva, according to the US statement.
The US Treasury’s sanction body, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), yesterday imposed sanctions on both Verkhovtseva and her company.
Versvet is based on Bělehradská in Karlovy Vary, in the town’s commercial and administrative centre, one of the most attractive parts of the town.
The Czech Finance Ministry told CTK that all information about the US measures has been monitored by the Financial Analytical Office (FAU), which is in charge of sanctions-related measures in the Czech Republic. However, based on the current regulations, it can only carry out these measures on persons or entities on the EU or UN sanctions lists, or on the Czech list based on the so-called Magnitsky Law, ministry spokeswoman Michaela Lagronova said.
Yesterday, OFAC targeted additional individuals and entities affiliated with Radioavtomatica, said the US Treasury Department.
This included 22 people and 104 entities with points of contact in more than 20 countries or jurisdictions. These sanctions mean that all assets of the named entities are blocked in the US, and that US citizens and people on US soil are prohibited from conducting transactions with the entities unless authorised by OFAC.
