Experts called the share of secondary US sanctions for cooperation with Russia The US prefers to impose secondary sanctions

Only 5% of all secondary US sanctions against foreign legal entities and individuals were imposed for violation of anti-Russian restrictions. Such an assessment was given in their report by experts from the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a Washington-based research center specializing in US national security issues. Secondary U.S. sanctions apply to companies and individuals that operate outside of U.S. jurisdiction but violate U.S. laws.

“While Russian and Chinese entities are often subject to sanctions for violating sanctions against other countries, the proportion of US secondary restrictions [imposed on foreign individuals under sanctions programs] against Russia and CHINA remains moderate,” the report says.

US primary sanctions threaten violators operating in US jurisdiction with direct restrictions in accordance with national law. For example, a US company may be subject to fines if it transfers funds to a foreign entity on the Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons List (SDN). Secondary sanctions are applied by Washington to sanctions-violating foreign companies. Thus, foreign entities have to decide whether to continue their cooperation with the sanctioned person at the cost of losing the benefits of ties with the United States. At the same time, researchers from CNAS did not include attempts by foreign companies to conclude a significant deal in the interests of sanctioned persons in the list of secondary restrictions.

Most secondary sanctions - 68% of the total - were imposed against foreign companies for cooperation with Iran and its structures, primarily in the petrochemical and oil industries. In second place are the "North Korean" sanctions, they account for 22% of the restrictions imposed.

Secondary sanctions against persons collaborating with Russia began to be introduced after Donald Trump came to the White House, the authors of the report note. The administration of the 45th President of the United States acted in accordance with the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), passed in 2017. Subsequently, the republican administration further expanded the list of individuals considered part of the Russian defense and intelligence sectors.