US Targets Russian Bank for Alleged Role in Helping Iran Evade Sanctions
Washington, Sept. 14 (KUNA) – The United States announced on Monday the imposition of measures against the Russian bank VTB, accusing it of assisting Iran in evading sanctions, as part of the “Economic Outcast” campaign launched last month to isolate Tehran from the global economy.
In a statement, the U.S. Department of the Treasury said its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) targeted the Russian bank “due to its involvement in helping Iran evade sanctions, including establishing correspondent banking relationships with Iranian banks subject to sanctions.”
According to the statement, the Treasury noted that VTB “opened banking offices in Iran in recent years to formalize closer banking coordination with the Iranian regime and expand trade between the two countries.” It added that over the past three years, the bank “established correspondent banking relationships with Iranian financial institutions subject to sanctions and began taking steps to enhance its presence in Tehran in January 2025.” The bank also “took measures to transfer billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets and established a settlement system using national currencies through correspondent accounts in Iranian rials and Russian rubles, aiming to increase bilateral trade volume.”
The statement pointed out that the Russian bank had previously been included on the U.S. Treasury’s sanctions list in January of last year for its operations in the financial services sector of the Russian economy, and earlier in February 2022 because it was owned or controlled by the Russian government and operated in the financial services sector of the Russian economy.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in a quote included in the statement, affirmed that his ministry “will continue to target and disrupt entities that provide material, technological, or financial support enabling the Iranian regime to continue its terrorist activities.” Bessent reiterated that his country “will not tolerate any support for the Iranian regime and will continue to identify, expose, and isolate entities that enable Iran’s practices.”
The U.S. Treasury warned in its statement that “foreign financial institutions that continue to deal with VTB after its designation on the blacklist under U.S. sanctions authorities related to Iran face greater sanction risks than before,” urging those institutions to “terminate those relationships immediately.”
It also announced that it “is holding meetings this week with global financial institutions to provide them with the necessary information to cut off revenue flows and procurement networks linked to the Iranian regime, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran’s terrorist proxies, and entities that enable their activities.”
Earlier on Monday, Bessent invited whistleblowers to provide the Treasury with information regarding entities supporting the Iranian regime, aiming to facilitate the imposition of measures under the “Economic Outcast” campaign announced last month against Iran.
The Treasury Secretary said in a post on the social media platform X: “The Department of the Treasury has launched the Economic Outcast campaign to cut off all financial lifelines to the Iranian regime and its supporters.”
The United States launched the “Economic Outcast” campaign on August 24 last month to “cut off every economic lifeline feeding the Iranian regime,” targeting sectors such as digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and maritime shipping, according to Bessent’s announcement at the time. (End) R.S.R / F.A.S
