The European Council on Feb. 19 introduced a humanitarian sanctions exception across its "restrictive measures to combat terrorism" for a 12-month period. Under the exemption, organizations and agencies "certified as humanitarian partners of the EU or its member states" can "engage in transactions with listed individuals and entities" without prior authorization to deliver humanitarian aid or support other activities that help people meet their "basic human needs," the council said. The measure brings the EU's sanctions framework in line with the U.N.'s humanitarian carve-out, the council said.

The European Commission is investigating whether subsidies for Chinese train company CRRC Qingdao Sifang Locomotive are giving it an unfair advantage as part of a Bulgarian bid for electric trains. The probe, launched last week, is the EU’s first “in-depth investigation” under its new Foreign Subsidies Regulation, which took effect last year and which could allow the EU to block the contract award or require CRRC to “effectively remedy the distortion” caused by the subsidies.

The countries behind the Russian oil price cap on Feb. 16 released changes to the cap's attestation model in a bid to "strengthen the compliance regime and reduce routes for circumvention," the U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced. The changes require per-voyage attestations and itemized ancillary cost information on request.

The European Council on Feb. 12 told central securities depositories that hold more than $1.07 million in assets from the Central Bank of Russia that they "must account [for] extraordinary cash balances accumulating due to EU restrictive measures separately." The depositories also must keep the related revenues separate, the council said, adding that the depositories are barred from "disposing of the ensuing net profits."

The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation in 2024 is transitioning to a new "Sanctions Digital Guidance" format instead of its usual PDF guidance, the agency announced in a Feb. 13 blog post. The switch will allow for greater navigation, responsiveness, accessibility and compatibility, making the guidance available on any device, OFSI said. The transition will happen "throughout 2024," and during this time, interested parties will find sanctions guidance as a mix of digital and legacy PDFs. The agency kicked off the transition by making its general guidance available through the digital platform.

The U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation this week amended a listing under its Russia restrictions list. The agency revised the listing for Vladimir Olegovich Potanin to show that he is sanctioned for conducting business in the Russian financial services and extractives sectors.

The U.K. on Feb. 12 added four Israeli citizens to its Global Human Rights sanctions regime. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation added Zvi Bar Yosef, Ely Federman, Yinon Levy and Moshe Sharvit for committing human rights abuses against Palestinian individuals in the West Bank.

EU members last week postponed a vote on new rules that could require companies to conduct specific due diligence on their supply chains to address various environmental and social concerns, including forced labor risks.

The U.K. will allow a general license involving the price cap on Russian oil to expire later this month, according to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation. The license, set to expire Feb. 18, authorizes the supply or delivery by ship of Russian crude oil and oil products below the $60 per barrel price cap. The U.K. didn't provide more information.

The EU General Court on Feb. 7 dismissed sanctions removal applications from Russians Alisher Usmanov and Igor Shuvalov, according to an unofficial translation.