Let me say this from the outset, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is no friend of mine. It was there that I was arrested in 2018 on baseless allegations that I was spying for my country, the UK, and there that I was tortured and sentenced to life imprisonment (an experience suffered by innumerable other foreigners and Emiratis...
WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is sanctioning firms involved in the production or ongoing transfer to Russia of Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which Russia has used in devastating attacks against civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. OFAC is designating Shahed Aviation Industries Research Center, the firm responsible...
Faced with draconian Western tech sanctions, Russia has turned to a reliable ally — the United Arab Emirates. The Arab country should end this dishonorable trade. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the UAE has entrenched its friendship with Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently awarded the UAE’s Ambassador to Russia Mohammed al Jaber the Order...
“The Gulfies play the blob like a fiddle,” a U.S. intelligence official told The Intercept. AMID MOUNTING GLOBAL criticism of his invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin took time on March 1 for a call with a counterpart who has proved himself increasingly reliable: Mohammed bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and the de...
One targeted company, Industrial Resources General Trading, is a Dubai-based company sanctioned for importing gold from the Central African Republic and paying the Russian mercenary outfit in cash sent directly to Moscow. It is the first Emirati company sanctioned in relation to Wagner. OFAC previously targeted another United Arab Emirates (UAE) based firm, Kratol Aviation, for...
Wagner’s businesses in Africa isolate and create dependent economies, not funding for private armies. The US Treasury Department on Tuesday sanctioned gold and diamond mining concerns connected to the Wagner group in Mali and the Central African Republic after Yevgeny Prigozhin, the mercenary group’s founder, attempted to stage a mutiny in Russia last weekend. The gold and diamond mining enterprises, as...
Vladimir Lisin has transferred his stakes in Russia’s biggest steelmaker and a rail freight operator to companies registered in Abu Dhabi, the latest example of a billionaire shifting assets to the oil-rich emirate. The businessman, who’s worth about $23 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, moved his stakes in Novolipetsk Steel PJSC and Freight One JSC from Cyprus...
The US has sanctioned entities operating in the UAE and Sudan for alleged connections to the notorious Russian mercenary group, which also has an extensive presence in the Middle East and North Africa. The Treasury Department specifically mentioned Industrial Resources General Trading’s connection to a gold and diamond company known as Diamville SAU. Diamville, which...
The fabric of America’s strategic ties to the Gulf region is fraying. The leader of its most consequential nation, Saudi Arabia, has essentially told the Biden administration with regard to oil supply, arms sales or nuclear power, “If you want to work with me fine, but if not, there are others who will.” Less visible but hardly...
SPIEF 2023: Brief Statistics SPIEF 2023 was attended by 17,000 participants (both physical and online) including 150 companies from 25 ‘unfriendly’ countries that have placed significant sanctions on Russia. The largest delegations were from the UAE, (over 500 participants) with other significant attendees being from the United States (200), China (147), and India (58). Roscongress,...