The Congressional Research Service this month updated a report that provides an overview of U.S. sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. The report details the various transactions and services that are subject to restrictions, as well as certain U.S. steps to sanction individual people and entities supporting Russia.
The U.K. on Dec. 28 amended one entry and corrected another under its Russia sanctions regime. The entry for Oje Parvaz Mado Nafar, an Iran-based manufacturer that produces unmanned aerial vehicles that are being shipped to Russia for the war in Ukraine, was amended to correct the spelling of its address. The entry for Said Mikhailovich Gutseriev was corrected to add Russian as his second nationality; he is also a British national.
The Wagner Group, a Russian private military company, bought arms from North Korea to use in its war in Ukraine, Reuters reported last week. The report came the same day the Commerce Department announced new, stricter license requirements for exports to the Wagner Group, which were designed to limit the company’s ability to buy weapons for the Russian government (see 2212210080).
The fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act includes several sanctions and export control related provisions, including measures that would require more sanctions reporting by the Biden administration, Morrison Foerster said in a recent client alert. One provision will require the president to submit a periodic report to Congress listing foreign people and entities knowingly participating in significant transactions involving Russian gold, while another will require the director of national intelligence to submit semiannual reports on the effects of U.S. sanctions against Russia. Another provision will require the DNI to study ways to provide “enhanced intelligence support” for export controls and foreign investment screening, the alert said.
The State Department designated 10 Russian entities this week, adding them to the Office of Foreign Assets Control's Specially Designated Nationals List. Six of the designated entities develop and manufacture technologies used by the Russian navy, including batteries, navigation equipment, automated control systems, combat information systems and other ship machinery. The remaining four entities operate in the "marine sector" of the Russian economy and develop technologies used in research vessels, aircraft, underwater and space vehicles, as well as manufacturing and related services.
The U.K. on Dec. 20 added a "new licensing ground related to medical goods" to the licensing grounds for exports of Russia's vulnerable goods, the Export Control Joint Unit announced. Under the Russian sanctions regime, interested parties must now apply for a license with the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation to export medical goods to Russia.
Russia and Iran are building a new trade route that runs from the eastern edge of Europe to the Indian Ocean, a path insulated from foreign intervention, Bloomberg reported Dec. 21. Using ship-tracking data, Bloomberg found that "dozens of Russian and Iranian vessels" are already trading in the route with tens of billions of dollars being invested to boost trading volumes. The goal is to circumvent sanctions by "creating trade networks protected from interdiction."
President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy planned to discuss sanctions and export controls in their Dec. 21 meeting, a senior administration officials told reporters in a call this week previewing their meeting. The two leaders planned to talk about “the sanctions and export controls that we have imposed and will continue to tighten and reinforce that have placed significant costs on Russia’s economy and Russia’s defense industrial base,” the official said. Biden and Zelenskyy also planned to speak about defense and military items the U.S. will continue to send Ukraine.
Canada this week launched its first steps to seize and pursue the forfeiture of sanctioned Russian assets. This is the “first time that Canada is using its new authorities that allow the government to pursue the seizure of assets belonging to sanctioned persons,” said Canada, which will look to seize $26 million from Granite Capital Holdings Ltd., a company owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. Canada said it's the first G-7 country “to implement such measures, demonstrating its strong commitment to Ukraine, its reconstruction and holding accountable those who have profited from and supported President [Vladimir] Putin’s regime.”
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