Trump lifts sanctions on some russian institutions, including Rosoboronexport

This was reported by The Moscow Times, as relayed by Ukrinform.

According to a release from the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the former president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and former head of Kalmykia, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, has also been removed from the sanctions list. In 2015, he was accused of supporting the regime of then-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. At that time, Ilyumzhinov's assets in the United States were frozen. "I attribute this to my very active international activities. In particular, I have been to North Korea and Syria and met with Bashar al-Assad," Ilyumzhinov commented on the situation.

Some Russian companies were also subject to Syrian sanctions, but the US has now lifted them. These include the Russian Financial Alliance Bank, which belonged to Ilyumzhinov. Also removed from the blacklist were Tempbank (which lost its licence in 2017), Mir Business Bank (a Russian legal entity of Iran's Bank Melli Iran), the state-owned RFK-Bank, the Russian federal state-owned enterprise Promsireimport, the Russian state-owned company Rosoboronexport (the only state intermediary in the Russian Federation for the export/import of weapons), Global Concepts Group, Global Vision Group, STG Logistics, Maritime Assistance and others.

As reported by Ukrinform, Trump signed an executive order lifting US sanctions against Syria, leaving only restrictions against former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and his supporters.

In 2016, Rosoboronexport was added to Ukraine's expanded list of sanctions against Russia. In 2018, Washington also imposed sanctions against Rosoboronexport, a leading Russian defence company, for violating the embargo on the supply of components for weapons of mass destruction to Iran, North Korea and Syria.

A year later, sanctions were imposed on Russian citizens, ships and the company Maritime Assistance LLC involved in supplying aviation fuel to the Russian military in Syria. 

Source: Ukrinform, The Moscow Times