UAE Firms Sent Over $20M in Illegal Exports to Russia Last Summer, Fall, Treasury Official Says

Russia is using the United Arab Emirates as a major transhipment hub to import controlled goods, a Treasury Department official said last week. UAE companies exported more than $18 million worth of goods to sanctioned Russian entities between July and November, said Elizabeth Rosenberg, assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes. They also exported more than $5 million worth of U.S.-origin and export controlled goods to Russia June to November. Those items included “semiconductor devices” used by Russia to fight its war in Ukraine.

“These types of figures are the basis for our engagement with the private sector, so that we can clarify the consequences of violating sanctions and export controls, discuss high-risk activity, and act when necessary,” Rosenberg said, speaking during a March 2 event hosted by the Association of Women in International Trade. She said Treasury is investigating this aid to Russia at the “individual, firm, and sector level” and will reach out to companies, banks and service providers that “we assess are wittingly or unwittingly providing assistance to Russia.”

Treasury will place a significant focus this year on targeting Russian sanctions evasion networks, she added, including by deploying “new and novel ways of complementing” U.S. export controls. The agency hopes to use new methods to impose “financial constraints to shut down the evasion and shadowy economic activity Russia seeks to sustain its war efforts.”

Rosenberg said this effort is a “broad campaign” that’s being “closely” coordinated with allies. “This is about making the choice clear to companies and banks: you can do business with the countries that constitute more than 50 percent of the world’s GDP, and its most convertible and stable currencies, or do business with those who facilitate Russia’s war.”