U.S. Dept of Treasury sanctions 11 Russians over cybercrimes

WASHINGTON. Sept 7 (Interfax) - The U.S. Department of the Treasury updated the list of cybercrime-related sanctions and added 11 Russians to it on Thursday, the department said in a statement.

Restrictions have been imposed on Mikhail Chernov, Maxim Galochkin, Maxim Khaliullin, Artyom Kurov, Sergei Loguntsov, Alexander Mozhayev, Dmitry Putilin, Maxim Rudensky, Mikhail Tsarev, Vadim Valiakhmetov, and Andrei Zhukov.

"Today, the United States, in coordination with the United Kingdom, sanctioned eleven individuals who are part of the Russia-based Trickbot cybercrime group," the statement said.

Trickbot is linked to Russian intelligence agencies and has targeted the U.S. administration, companies, and hospitals, including critical infrastructure and medical facilities during the Covid-19 pandemic, the department said.

The sanctions have been imposed on managers, system administrators, designers and software developers associated with the group. The U.S. and Britain have added some Trickbot members before, in February 2023. A British government statement said that 18 members of the group were now under sanctions.

The U.S. sanctions block all of the U.S. assets and ownership interests of these individuals and ban U.S. citizens from any transactions involving those assets, and may also be applied against anyone who has dealings with the sanctioned individuals, and against any foreign financial institution which knowingly provides these Russian citizens with significant services or facilitates their transactions, the Treasury said.