OFAC puts Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs on sanctions list

MOSCOW. Aug 11 (Interfax) - The United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has placed the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) on the SDN list, the Treasury Department said.

Until recently, Western sanctions had been imposed on individual Russian companies and businesspeople, both affiliated and not affiliated with the RSPP, but not on the union itself.

According to information on the RSPP's website, the union functions in Russia in two legal forms, as a Russian association of employers (OOR RSPP) and a Russian non-governmental organization (RSPP). The U.S. has placed the OOR RSPP association of employers on its SDN list.

The OFAC described the RSPP as a Russia-based organization involved in the Russian technology sector which has "a variety of coordinating councils, including ones that promote import substitution, technology independence, and technology development." The union has also been involved in activities related to responding to sanctions imposed on Russia, it said.

The RSPP website says the union brings together "thousands of Russian companies [and] industrial, scientific, and financial organizations, in all regions across Russia," and promotes their interests in Russia and abroad.