The U.K.'s Export Control Joint Unit on Aug. 11 issued a new general license under its Russia sanctions regime permitting the provision of certain legal advice and services. The license authorizes legal advisory services to any person or entity related to whether an "act or a proposed act complies with" sanctions, export and import controls on Russia. Parties may now provide legal advisory services surrounding the risk of "punitive measures" concerning sanctions on Russia, any Russian laws that "have as their object or effect the frustration of any laws specified [in any restrictive measures] including sanctions, export and import controls or other restrictive measures imposed by Russia"; or "any criminal law imposed by any jurisdiction."
Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, asked the Kyrgyz Republic to “swiftly” investigate allegations that the country’s government has helped Russia evade international sanctions. In an Aug 8 letter to President Sadyr Japarov, Menendez said Kyrgyzstan has “dramatically expanded its import-export business with Russia” since Russia launched its war against Ukraine, and said Kyrgyzstan’s “lack of enforcement or worse -- complicit facilitation of trade with Russia in products that implicate sanctions, such as drones, aircraft parts, weapon accessories, and circuitry -- is reportedly enabling Russia to evade international sanctions.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week issued a new set of Russia sanctions, designating four members of Russia’s “financial elite” and a Russian business association. The sanctions target Petr Olegovich Aven, Mikhail Maratovich Fridman, German Borisovich Khan and Alexey Viktorovich Kuzmichev, along with the Russian Association of Employers the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), a Russian technology industry organization.
Canada this week announced a new set of sanctions against Belarus for the Alexander Lukashenko regime’s role in the country’s “fraudulent” 2020 presidential election. The designations target nine people and seven entities, including people “complicit in Russia’s ongoing” war against Ukraine, government officials and military manufacturing and technology companies. The U.S. announced new designations against Belarus this week (see 2308090025).
The Moscow Arbitration Court in an Aug. 1 order froze shares of companies owned by Goldman Sachs Group, worth around $36 million, after Russian bank Otkritie filed a lawsuit against the U.S. banking giant, the Financial Times reported. State-owned Otkritie said Goldman refused to fulfill $6.4 million in debt obligations under derivatives deals between the two banks. Goldman said it was not able to settle the debt due to sanctions set against the Russian bank, FT reported.
The U.S. this week announced a new set of sanctions against Belarus, targeting eight people, five entities and one aircraft with ties to President Alexander Lukashenko's regime. The designations target people and entities that have helped the government evade sanctions or are involved in the government’s “continued civil society repression” or its “complicity” in Russia’s war against Ukraine. The Office of Foreign Assets Control issued two new general licenses to authorize certain transactions with two of the newly sanctioned entities.
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation in a pair of Aug. 8 notices added 19 entries to its Russia sanctions regime and six entries to its Belarus restrictions regime. The Russia sanctions additions include 10 people and nine entities, most relating to Iran's support for the Russian military's war in Ukraine. Many of the people designated were employees or executives at one of the listed companies, Paravar Pars Co., an aerospace research and engineering firm in Iran.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York set a plea proceeding for former FBI agent Charles McGonigal in a case charging him with violating U.S. sanctions on Russia. Judge Jennifer Rearden set the Aug. 15 proceeding on word that McGonigal "may wish to enter" a guilty plea (U.S. v. Charles McGonigal, S.D.N.Y. # 23-00016).
Canada this week announced another set of sanctions against Iran, designating seven senior military officials, government officials and people working for “state-directed” companies. The officials and people have ties to entities that supply materials to Iran’s “repressive” national Law Enforcement Command or work for companies that make “lethal combat drones” used by Iran’s armed forces to “destabilize the region” or that are sent to Russia for its war against Ukraine, Canada said.
A group of European countries not in the EU aligned with recent sanctions decisions from the European Council under the lists of parties subject to restrictions to combat terrorism and threatening the sovereignty of Ukraine, along with the Syria sanctions regime.