The EU updated a FAQ under its Russia sanctions regime covering whether Russian nationals may temporarily bring personal goods and vehicles, set out in Annex XXI, into the EU for touristic reasons. The FAQ was originally published last week, in which the bloc said no, noting that its regulations bar the purchase, import or transfer of goods in this annex if they originate in Russia or are exported from Russia (see 2309110018).
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The EU added a FAQ to its Russia sanctions guidance covering the "import, purchase & transfer of listed goods." The questions ask if a Russian national can temporarily bring personal goods and vehicles into the EU for tourism reasons. The bloc said no, clarifying that its regulations bar the "purchase, import, or transfer, directly or indirectly, of goods as listed in Annex XXI to the Regulation if they originate in Russia or are exported from Russia." This ban includes cars under CN code 8703.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned 11 people involved in the Russia-based Trickbot cybercrime group, which has targeted the U.S. government and American companies, the agency said. The designations target Andrey Zhuykov, a senior administrator with the group, along with other key members Maksim Galochkin, Maksim Rudenskiy, Mikhail Tsarev, Dmitry Putilin, Maksim Khaliullin, Sergey Loguntsov, Vadym Valiakhmetov, Artem Kurov, Mikhail Chernov and Alexander Mozhaev.
Government officials from the U.S., Australia, Canada, the EU, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and the U.K. met last week to discuss Russia-related sanctions enforcement and efforts to “bolster ongoing oligarch asset forfeiture initiatives,” the Treasury Department said. The countries, part of the multilateral Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs Task Force, said they have completed an “initial effort to map and account for Russian sovereign assets” that are frozen and held in REPO member jurisdictions, the agency said, totaling about $280 billion.
Suspicious activity reports recently filed with the U.S. government show nearly $1 billion worth of transactions over the last year may have had ties to Russia-related export control evasion, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said in a new report analyzing SAR trend data. The report -- issued as part of a joint effort between FinCen and the Bureau of Industry and Security to collect more leads for export enforcement agents -- highlights several evasion trends being reported by banks and other financial institutions, including what types of goods are most commonly being sought by sanctions evaders and which foreign countries those transactions most frequently involve.
Andrew Adams, former acting deputy assistant attorney general for DOJ's National Security Division, has joined Steptoe & Johnson as a partner in the Investigations and White-Collar Defense Practice in New York, the firm announced. Adams worked as the first director of Task Force KleptoCapture -- the interagency group tasked with enforcing U.S. sanctions on Russia in wake of the invasion of Ukraine. At DOJ, he also oversaw efforts pertaining to economic sanctions, export controls and cyber offenses tied to nation-state actors, the firm said.
The European Commission released a general guidance document on implementing due diligence practices to halt the circumvention of the sanctions on Russia. The guidance includes risk assessment of possible sanctions circumvention, due diligence best practices, circumvention red flags related to business partners and buyers, and EU sanctions whistleblower tools. The due diligence best practices section addresses the stakeholder and transaction levels and the level of the goods themselves.
The EU General Court this week upheld one application for delisting under the Russia sanctions regime and rejected six others. The court removed former Ozon CEO Aleksandr Shulgin from the sanctions list, saying his relisting was not justified. The court said that given Shulgin had resigned his post and the European Council had not looked in why listing was still proper, he was not properly sanctioned, according to an unofficial translation.
The EU added six individuals to its Global Sanctions Regime for their role in perpetuating "serious human rights violations" in Russia and Ukraine, the European Council announced. The individuals include prosecutors and judges in Russia-occupied Crimea who participated in the "politically motivated court proceedings" against journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko. The council also sanctioned two members of the Russian Federal Security Service who either tortured Yesypenko or investigated him.