The sanctions target and freeze the U.S.-controlled assets of five banks — one in Georgia and four in Russia — and Dmitry Yuryevich Nikulin, vice president of Russia’s TSMRBank, for establishing a secret banking relationship with North Korean financial institutions that funneled millions of dollars and rubles between them.

The United States has blacklisted a network accused of aiding financial payments between Russia and North Korea, two isolated countries that have grown financially and militarily closer amid the Kremlin's war in Ukraine.

The United States imposed sanctions on Thursday on a network of five groups and one person, based in Russia and the Georgian region of South Ossetia, for enabling payments between Russia and North Korea,

The United States has imposed sanctions against individuals and entities involved in illegal financial transactions between Russia and North Korea, according to the US Department of the Treasury. As noted by the agency,

The U.S. government has imposed new sanctions on Russia for its involvement in illegal financial schemes with North Korea, aimed at enhancing cooperation and providing Pyongyang access to the international banking system,