US sanctions intended to reduce Russia’s profit from defense deals — Department of State

US sanctions against Russia’s defense and intelligence sectors are intended to reduce Moscow’s profit from deals with other countries, a senior US Department of State official said.

"The ultimate goal [of Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act's Section 231] <…> is to stop important revenue from going - from flowing into the Russian Government," the official said.

However, he did not specify the exact number of the deals that were deterred and possible countries where those deals were deterred.

"The results of our engagement and our demarches globally, we have been able to turn off potential deals that equal several billion dollars. And that is real success, it’s real money, and it’s real revenue that is not going to the Kremlin and is not going to Russia," the official said.

He also did not speculate whether the United States tried to affect Qatar’s ongoing negotiations to buy S-400 missile defense systems from Russia.

On January 29, provisions of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) came into force, allowing the US government to sanction third parties for their deals with Russian defense sector companies.