An attorney for Russian billionaire Dmitry Pumpyansky said EU sanctions on him and his family are "an abuse of power" and serve "no understandable, no reasonable purpose under the EU foreign policy goals." In a public appeal of the sanctions in the EU General Court, Pumpyansky said he and his family are "collateral damage in the conflict between Russia and the EU" and are "mere hostages of EU foreign policy," Bloomberg reported April 25. Pumpyansky was listed in March 2022 as founder of Russia's largest pipemaker TMK PJSC. His lawyers said he is not a Russian oligarch and is instead a "self-made businessman."
The Commerce Department launched a paper this week detailing its strategy for a National Semiconductor Technology Center, a “key component” of the Chips Act designed to support and improve American leadership and competitiveness in semiconductor research, design, engineering and advanced manufacturing. The paper outlines how the NSTC will “accelerate America’s ability to develop the chips and technologies of the future,” the agency said, including by creating “affiliated technical centers around the country.”
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The U.S. needs to create a formal doctrine to outline guardrails for deploying sanctions, export controls and other economic statecraft tools, said Daleep Singh, President Joe Biden’s former deputy national security adviser, speaking during an April 25 Atlantic Council event. He also said the U.S. needs to conduct an assessment of its past use of those trade and financial measures to determine when they worked best and make sure they aren’t being overused.
The EU made new sanctions listings under three regimes, the European Council announced. Under the anti-terrorism list, the council added two individuals and one group linked to ISIL operating in the Cabo Delgado region in Mozambique. The group is ISIS-Mozambique and the two individuals are Abu Yasir Hassan and Bonomade Mahcude Omar, who hold leadership positions in the group.
The U.S. sent a Treasury Department official to Europe last week to discuss Russian sanctions evasion tactics with Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Germany, including ways those countries’ governments, business groups and banks can identify red flags. Brian Nelson, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, shared the “most critical inputs” that Russia is looking to backfill -- including optics, electronics, and manufacturing equipment -- and shared the “emerging sanctions evasion typologies” Russia is using to evade sanctions and export controls, Treasury said.
EU member states are split over whether to introduce a new anti-corruption sanctions regime, the EU Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights heard this week. Advocates during the hearing urged the bloc to establish the regime, saying it would further align EU trade controls with the U.S. and help the EU more quickly and easily sanction Russian oligarchs.
The U.K. added three names to its Russia sanctions list on April 21. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said Russian government officials Andrey Zadachin, Denis Kolesnikov and Elena Lenskaya were all involved in the "politically motivated case" against Russian journalist and activist Vladimir Kara-Murza. The U.S. issued similar sanctions in March (see 2303030021).
DOJ will look to further crack down on Russian sanctions evasion by zeroing in on overseas investment advisers, hedge funds, law firms and private equity managers that have so far evaded scrutiny, Andrew Adams, head of DOJ's Task Force KleptoCapture, told Bloomberg. KleptoCapture is the interagency group charged with enforcing U.S. sanctions on Russia.
Sergey Karpushkin, a U.S. businessman and Belarussian national, was charged with participating in a scheme to violate U.S. sanctions on Russian oligarch Sergey Kurchenko and two of his related companies by buying over $150 million in steelmaking materials, DOJ announced April 19. The Belarussian is the second to be charged in the scheme after John Unsalan, president of building materials supplier Metalhouse, was hit with similar charges earlier this week (see 2304180033).