WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department on Thursday announced sanctions on a global network of individuals and shell companies it says are helping the Russian military to evade the multilateral controls on exports of advanced technology to Moscow while the Kremlin wages war against Ukraine.

The network’s center is Serniya Engineering. This Moscow-based company was said to be under the control of Russian intelligence services by the Biden administration.

There are many other options. sprawling group of companiesThis includes middlemen, defense procurement companies, and front companies located in France, Spain, Finland and Singapore.

After Russia invaded Ukraine unprovoked in February, the U.S. implemented export controls. They work together with similar export restrictions that were being enforced in the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia and Canada.

Treasury announced Thursday new sanctions against four technology firms that provide the Russian military microelectronics and navigation equipment.

Mikron, Russia’s most important chipmaker, is one of these companies. It is also responsible for Mir’s debit card chips, which were developed as a response to Western sanctions.

The U.S. also identified three more sectors of the Russian economy — aerospace, marine and electronics — as potential targets for sanctions given their strategic importance to the country’s defense industrial base.

Up to now, only the defense, technology, and financial industries were considered strategically important by the Kremlin.

Treasury has also identified a Russian agency as being responsible for the development and deployment of Triton malware. This was in addition to several top government officials.

The White House and U.S intelligence agencies were concerned that Russia might launch a cyberattack against American critical infrastructure.

A few weeks back, U.S. officials made the unusual step of holding classified briefings to provide detailed information for hundreds of infrastructure companies they feel are most at risk from Russian cyber war.

The cyberattack against a nonmilitary target by Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen widely as the quickest and easiest way to punish the Biden government for its leadership role in creating the global alliance that sanctions Russia and supplies weapons and support to Ukraine.

You can find the Treasury Department website here a complete list of the new sanctions, which affect 21 entities and 13 individuals.

The package that was announced Thursday is not like previous rounds of sanctions which targeted Russia’s economy or its defense sector as a response to the Ukraine conflict.

But, Treasury Department claimed that the Treasury Department was working in close collaboration with partners “in order to make sure the Russian Federation doesn’t exploit their jurisdictions for destructive purposes.”

In general, Washington has reaffirmed its commitment not to be complacent since the original wave of sanctions in coordination against Russia at the end of February.

White House officials state that they will continue looking at ways to undermine Russia’s military structure as long the Kremlin is continuing its brutal, botched invasion in Ukraine.

“Russia not only continues to violate the sovereignty of Ukraine with its unprovoked aggression but also has escalated its attacks striking civilians and population centers,” said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in a statement announcing Thursday’s new sanctions.

She replied, saying, “We will continue targeting Putin’s warmachine with sanctions from all angles, until this senseless conflict of choice is finished.”

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