US ambassador: our sanctions don’t target Cyprus
US sanctions imposed on entities and individuals in Cyprus are not targeting the country but oligarchs and arms traders that enable Russia to continue waging its war in Ukraine, US Ambassador to Cyprus Julie Fisher said on Wednesday.
She was addressing the Sanctions and Export Controls: Best Practices seminar, which brought together representatives from the Central Bank of Cyprus, compliance officers of the Cyprus banking sector and officials from the US Treasury, Justice and State Departments.
“Our designations, while they may touch entities and individuals in Cyprus, not targeting Cyprus but instead targeting the oligarchs, the arms dealers, high tech and dual use goods traders, who are enabling the Kremlin’s military machine to produce sophisticated missiles, aircrafts and bombs and used with devastating effects against innocent civilians in Ukraine,” Fisher said.
She called for “constant alert,” by banks’ compliance departments, as “sanction evasion networks use transshipment hubs in Europe, the Middle East and Asia to move high-tech goods first to countries which are allowed to import US technologies like Cyprus before sending them on elsewhere.”
Fischer pointed out that banks in some cases have proceeded with the closure of accounts of high-risk clients and sanctioned individuals’ relatives, adding that “some caution on that suspicion is warranted certainly to ensure that those doing nothing wrong are not negatively affected.”
She noted that “we have seen some Cypriot banks adopt and follow the best practice standard namely a prohibition of clients involved in arms, military or defence sectors, making it easier for banks to close those clients’ accounts.”
“This standard was adopted by Cyprus banks on your advice, the
