The Biden administration should warn Mexico that it will be hit with sanctions if the country continues to “circumvent U.S. policy” by selling oil to Cuba, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said in a post on Medium last week. Rubio cited shipping data in a Reuters report that showed Mexico had surpassed Russia in providing oil to Cuba, although Mexico has said the oil is for humanitarian purposes.
The U.S., the U.K. and Canada issued new sanctions this week against Myanmar, targeting various entities and officials with ties to the country’s military regime and its purchase of weapons.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The EU is working on a proposal to use "windfall profits" from its Russian sanctions regime in an aid package for Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced Oct. 27. The proposal would pool the assets, which currently are "benefitting a limited number of financial institutions in the" EU, and channel them via the EU budget "en bloc" for Ukraine's reconstruction.
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation on Oct. 27 updated its general Russian sanctions license permitting payments to sanctioned telecommunication and news media service firms. The update clarifies that PJSC MegaFon and its subsidiaries and Digital Invest Limited Liability Co. are sanctioned civilian telecommunication companies, while also extending the license until May 30, 2026.
The U.K. High Court on Oct. 26 rejected an application from Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman to overturn the U.K.'s decision to refuse three licenses for payments related to the businessman's property and his management company. The court said the U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation legally concluded that a license may not be granted if the payment is made "directly" or "indirectly" to another designated individual or entity.
Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry recently updated its list of common "high-priority" goods barred from being exported to Russia, according to an unofficial translation. The items on the list, updated Oct. 20, include electronics parts, such as integrated circuits and transistors, wireless equipment and cameras. The full list has 45 types of goods, sorted into four tiers based on the level of importance to the Russian government. The move comes about one month after the U.S. and others expanded their list of common high-priority items that exporters and others should closely monitor for potential diversion to Russia (see 2309200031).
The U.K. amended two listings under its Russia sanctions regime, the Office of Foreign Sanctions Implementation announced. The entries for Veniamin Ivanovich Kondratyev, regional governor of Krasnodar territory, and Nikolai Fyodorovna Kondratyuk, member of the Federation Council of Russia, were updated to change the date of birth for Veniamin and to add an alias for Kondratyuk.
The European Council on Oct. 24 amended the sanctions listing for Irina Anatolievna Kostenko under its Russia sanctions regime. The council updated Kostenko's date of birth from April 4, 1974, to May 8, 1967.
The EU General Court on Oct. 25 annulled the listing of the ex-wife of Alfa Group founder Mikhail Fridman, referred to only as "QF" in the opinion, according to an unofficial translation. Originally sanctioned in April 2022, QF was delisted five months later. The court annulled her original listing. QF claimed the European Council based its decision on evidence lacking probative value and erroneously assessed the facts.