RFE: Four Serbian Firms on the U.S. ’s New List of Sanctions against Russia

War in Ukraine (Photo: PrintScreen YouTube)

The new U.S. list of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine includes nearly 300 companies and individuals, among them four firms in Serbia and two businessmen, Marko Svorcan and Dragan Dragas, who run two of them, Radio Free Europe (RFE) reported in an extensive article on anti-Russian sanctions on Feb. 23.

The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control's (OFAC) list of sanctions includes the Kominvex, Soha Info and Goodforwarding companies, whose business operations and methods to evade the EU and U.S. sanctions while doing business with Russian firms were reported on by the RFE last November.

These Serbian companies are part of a special group of entities being sanctioned for “their involvement in orchestrating and facilitating the transfer of critical technology and equipment to Russia’s military-industrial base.” Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, dual-purpose goods worth at least USD71.1 million were delivered to Russia via Serbian companies, the RFE revealed in the report published last November.

These goods are on the list of high-risk products, placed under the sanctions imposed against Russia by the EU and U.S. Based on international trade databases, the RFE analyzed more than 14,000 shipments that arrived in Russia since the war in Ukraine started. Also, Serbia has failed to align with all decisions regarding anti-Russian sanctions since. In such a vacuum, and with no legal restrictions, some Serbian firms earned millions.