WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) – The United States imposed Iran-related sanctions Monday on Russia’s VTB Bank Public Joint Stock Company, accusing it of involvement in Iranian sanctions evasion, the Treasury Department said as Washington seeks to ramp up economic pressure on Tehran.
The action builds on sanctions imposed against VTB, Russia’s second-largest lender, in 2022, when the bank was targetedfollowing Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“Under Operation Economic Outcast, Treasury will continue to target and disrupt those who provide material, technological, or financial support that allows the Iranian regime to sustain its terrorist enterprise,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the statement.
“Treasury will not tolerate any support to the regime and will continue to identify, expose, and isolate Iran’s enablers.”
Bessent warned last week that President Donald Trump’s administration would sanction a large bank as it continues to apply economic pressure on Tehran to end a more than six-month U.S. conflict with Iran.
The United States has imposed a range of economic measures against Iran since the conflict began in February, targeting oil exports, shipping networks, weapons procurement channels, financial intermediaries, digital asset exchanges and aviation links.
(Reporting by David Lawder and Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Doina Chiacu)