The U.S. Treasury Department has designated Taco LLC (Taco), a company registered in Armenia, as a third-country supplier for Radioavtomatika, a major Russian defense procurement firm that specializes in procuring foreign items for Russia’s defense industry.

Taco has thus been “sanctioned” for indirectly aiding Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) writes: “Radioavtomatika pays Taco for importing components and handling the procurement process within Armenia.” 

The OFAC today also designated Sinno Electronics Co., Limited (Sinno), a People’s Republic of China as a third-country supplier of Radioavtomatika.

Today’s action includes additional designations against the network of Radioavtomatika. The company, which supplies electronic component to the Russian defense industry, has already been sanctioned by the U.S. and the E.U.)

It appears that the U.S. is now going front companies and foreign intermediaries for supporting Russia’s defense sector.

The OFAC writes Sinno and Taco have interacted with each other in relation to their work with Radioavtomatika.

The OFAC claims Sinno and Taco provide financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of Radioavtomatika.

Today’s OFAC sanction list includes fourteen persons in Russia’s military-industrial complex, three key leaders of Russia’s financial infrastructure, immediate family members of some of senior Russian officials, and 278 members of Russia’s legislature for “enabling Russia’s sham referenda and attempt to annex sovereign Ukrainian territory.”

Photo: AP Photo / Jon Elswick