The Biden administration on Thursday announced a series of restrictions aimed at cutting off Russia’s access to foreign products like semiconductors, computers, lasers and telecommunications equipment in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
The measures, which analysts called significant, will halt direct technological exports from the United States to Russia, in an effort to curtail Russian industries including defense, aerospace and shipping. They also go beyond previous sanctions issued by the U.S. government by placing new limitations on products that are manufactured outside the United States but use American equipment or technology.
Under the new rules, high-tech goods that are made in foreign countries using American machinery, software or blueprints cannot be exported to Russia — restrictions that echo the kind of punitive curbs the United States imposed on the Chinese telecom firm Huawei in 2020.
“This is going to impose severe cost on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time,” President Biden said on Thursday.
The Commerce Department, which announced the new restrictions, also added 49 Russian entities to a list of military suppliers that will face even further curbs on their access to foreign technology. Companies can apply to the United States government for licenses to continue supplying goods to Russia, but they are likely to be denied.
The rules were designed to exempt consumer electronics, like dishwashers, digital cameras and smartphones. But they will affect the supply of products in a range of industries, including aircraft, avionics, telecommunications, maritime, computers and microelectronics, said Kevin Wolf, a partner in international trade at Akin Gump who worked in export controls under the Obama administration.
“We have purposefully designed these sanctions to maximize a long-term impact on Russia and to minimize the impact on the United States and our allies,” he said.
