While the US and EU continue to discuss new sanctions without enforcing them, existing restrictions keep producing tangible results:
🇺🇸 The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) fined brokerage firm Interactive Brokers $11.8 million for sanctions violations. The company processed over 250 transactions for clients from Crimea, Iran, Cuba, Syria, and Russia — including via sanctioned Russian banks in 2022.
🇩🇪 In Germany, a car dealership owner was sentenced to five years in prison for exporting 71 premium vehicles to Russia using fake transit routes through third countries. The court also confiscated all illicit proceeds — around €5 million — in favor of the state.
🇳🇱 In the Netherlands, an engineer from a tech company received a three-year prison sentence for transferring technical information on microchip production to Russia via Signal, Telegram, and Google Drive during 2023–2024.
🇷🇺 Meanwhile in Russia, another import substitution failure. Aircraft manufacturers have once again delayed serial production of the MS-21 airliner — now until 2026. The reason: a lack of domestic bearings and electronic components. According to developers, Russia lost its Soviet-era designs and still cannot produce critical parts despite four years of “import substitution” policy.
Read more news in ESCU’s Russian Media Monitoring Report #26 ⬇️
