Bank handling transactions between Russia and Syria placed under US sanctions
Last week, the bank Russian Finance Corporation (RFC) fell under US sanctions. It was the primary bank for transactions between Syria and Russia, The Bell news outlet writes.
Officially the US government stated that RFC was included on the sanctions list because it belongs to Rosoboronexport, which has shipped billions of dollars of weapons to Syria in the last decade, and has also given material, financial and technological support to the country’s government.
One of The Bell’s sources out of a number of businessmen working in Syria said that he does not know of any other banks for working with Syria.
“It is logical that the rest of the state banks were kept away from this toxicity – the operation in Syria could have resulted in a tightening of sanctions for any of them,” observed Sergei Glandin, lecturer of international law at MSU.
Two Russian banks (Tempbank and Russian International Bank) previously intended to work with Syria, but Russia’s Central Bank revoked their licenses.
On April 6, the US placed sanctions on the Russians on the so-called “Kremlin list”, which includes Russian businessmen and officials who are close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Physical and legal entities are included in the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, which entails a blocking of assets and a prohibition on making direct or indirect deals with the concerned parties.