“Sanctions will scare away buyers of Russian weapons”: what foreign media are writing about new US sanctions

On Thursday, the US State Department imposed sanctions on 33 Russian individuals and entities and the Chinese Central Military Council's Training and Supply Department, which bought Su-35s and S-400s from Russia. This is the first time that Washington has applied secondary sanctions against foreigners for deals with Russia. The sanctions are expected to scare away those countries that are considering buying weapons from Russia, and thus cut off Moscow's access to an important source of income, media write.

The Wall Street Journal

The new sanctions, which ban all financial and business ties with a Chinese entity [which has been sanctioned], are a message to other countries considering buying weapons from Russia. The sanctions could limit Moscow's access to an important source of revenue and diplomatic tool, US officials said.

The list of sanctioned individuals released by the State Department is the first step towards new restrictions, says a senior Trump administration official. The sanctions are supposed to deter possible deals with blacklisted companies and individuals who work in the Russian military sector.

US attempts to dissuade Turkey from buying Russian S-400s have so far been unsuccessful. The measures taken the day before mean that Turkey also faces US sanctions if it continues to consider the deal.

The Sukhoi company is not yet under sanctions, but it is also under suspicion, like many other Russian paramilitary structures that are mentioned in the State Department blacklist. Last week, a senior US Treasury official warned the company that it could face sanctions if its planes were used again in a chemical attack in Syria. The company has already lost billions of dollars in deals due to the threat of sanctions, US officials say.

Vox

The new sanctions are a rather drastic move by a president [Donald Trump] who has become friends with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has repeatedly denied the Kremlin's malign actions during the 2016 election. This is also a surprise because Trump usually opposes the demonization of Moscow because he wants to strengthen relations between Russia and the United States.

Russia, of course, will be very angry with the new measures, but the US administration does not seem to care.

Reuters

Despite the escalation of the trade war between the US and China, the target of sanctions against the Chinese entity was not Beijing or the Chinese defense sector, the restrictions were directed at Moscow, a US administration source said.

“The ultimate target of these sanctions is Russia. The CAATSA sanctions in this context are not intended to undermine the defense capability of any particular country,” the official told reporters.

Security experts in Asia said it was mostly a symbolic move and would likely only bring Moscow and Beijing closer.

CNN

Since Russia is the world's second-largest arms supplier after the United States, it appears that Washington could face the embarrassment of being forced to impose sanctions on allies who buy weapons from Moscow.

According to a source in the Trump administration, the decision on whom to impose sanctions against, the United States will take into account the volume of purchases from Russian companies.

South China Morning Post

“I'm actually a little surprised that they decided to impose secondary sanctions on China in the first place,” said former US State Department official Peter Harrell. “But in the context of increasing U.S.-China trade tensions, economic tensions, and military tensions in the South China Sea, the Trump administration likely had a reason to go after China in the first place.”

"It won't stop the Russians, but it could affect potential buyers of Russian weapons," said Michael Raska, associate professor at Nanyang Technological University. “With the strategic competition between China and Russia and China and the US, this move could actually strengthen Russian-Chinese cooperation, if only to counter US pressure.”

Egor Sonin, Liana Faizova