The State Department last week called on Russia to stop preventing agricultural exports and other food products from leaving Ukraine, saying it would help lower global food prices and get “urgently needed grains to people around the world.” Moscow should “end its illegal war in Ukraine to allow a return to normal agricultural production and trade and an immediate and significant improvement in global food security,” the agency said. It also stressed that U.S. sanctions aren’t blocking agricultural trade, and the U.S. offers authorizations to allow “transactions involving agricultural products and fertilizer.”
The Biden administration should continue to designate members of Russia’s Wagner Group, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said last week, adding that Russia's President Vladimir Putin is using the military company as a “weapon of malign influence.” McCaul on May 25 called for “the expanded use of sanctions to target Wagner and its enablers throughout Africa, in Ukraine and around the globe.” The Treasury Department last week sanctioned a senior Mali-based Wagner Group official (see 2305250045).
Several companies this month disclosed potential export control or sanctions violations or updated the status of their current disclosures, including an information technology services company, an investment firm and a digital asset services company. The potential violations involve a business trying to exit the Russian market, a company potentially illegally sending export-controlled data and a firm waiting years for a response to two sanctions disclosures.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned Ivan Aleksandrovich Maslov, a Mali-based official with the sanctioned Russian private military company Wagner Group. Maslov purportedly leads the Wagner Group’s mercenary units in Mali, working as part of an organization that has committed “widespread human rights abuses” and may be trying to evade sanctions on imports of military equipment for use against Ukraine, the Treasury Department said.
The U.K. Department for Business and Trade released new guidance covering Russia-related sanctions circumvention. The guidance addresses ways companies can conduct sanctions due diligence, how companies try to "covertly" acquire goods through the procurement cycle and several red flags and "risk indicators."
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation amended the listings of three individuals and one entity on its Russia sanctions regime. The entries for Ilya Klebanov, Valery Shantsev and AFK Sistema were corrected with the latest information on date of birth or other date and address information, while the "non-Latin script language" for Vladimir Lepin was updated.
The U.K. this week issued a general license under its Russia and Belarus sanctions regimes authorizing certain funds transfers to a U.K. individual or entity for the purposes of satisfying a contractual obligation. The license, which runs until Nov. 21, features certain conditions, including that the payment must be for the benefit of a U.K. party and the total value of the funds cannot exceed about $248,561. The license also includes a reporting requirement.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned four entities and one person involved in “obfuscated revenue generation” and cyber activities to support the North Korean government. The designations target the Pyongyang University of Automation, one of North Korea’s “premier cyber instruction institutions,” along with the Technical Reconnaissance Bureau and its "subordinate cyber unit," the 110th Research Center, which are controlled by North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau, the country’s intelligence bureau. OFAC also sanctioned Chinyong Information Technology Cooperation Company, which employs delegations of North Korean information technology workers in Russia and Laos, as well as North Korean national Kim Sang Man, who helps pay salaries to family members of Chinyong’s overseas workers.
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The U.S. ended the Group of 7 summit in Japan with an agreement by member countries to explore new restrictions on outbound investments into China and a strategy to de-risk with regard to certain aspects of the country’s economy, a result President Joe Biden said “showcased the unity of purpose” of the G-7 leaders toward Beijing. The countries also emphasized the importance of multilateral export controls, agreeing to increase cooperation on restrictions over dual-use technologies.