The U.S. sanctioned two shipping companies and two vessels last week for their involvement in exports of liquefied natural gas from Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project, an energy project sanctioned by the U.S. The designations target Gotik Shipping Co and Plio Energy Cargo Shipping OPC PVT LTD, which are the registered owner and commercial manager, respectively, of LNG carrier New Energy. The U.S. also sanctioned the Mulan, an LNG carrier managed and operated by Pilo Energy.
Russia has “secretly” been using India as an alternative market to acquire export-controlled dual-use technologies and has explored building facilities in the country to obtain components for its war against Ukraine, the Financial Times reported Sept. 4. Plans drawn up by the Russian government show the country aimed to use “significant reserves” of rupees collected by Russian banks from oil sales to India to help with the effort, and considered “pumping investment into Russo-Indian electronics development and production facilities,” the report said.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, announced Sept. 5 that officials from four large U.S. computing chip manufacturers will testify at a hearing next week on Russia’s efforts to evade U.S. export controls.
The U.S. this week sanctioned 10 people and two entities involved in Russian government “influence operations,” including state-funded news outlets and their employees.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control published a new alert this week detailing Russian attempts to evade sanctions by opening new overseas branches and subsidiaries.
The House of Representatives plans to vote on several export control-related bills next week, including the Remote Access Security Act, which is designed to close a loophole that has allowed China to use cloud service providers to access advanced U.S. computing chips remotely.
The U.K. updated the general license under its Russian sanctions regime that authorizes certain imports of Russian diamonds processed in third countries. The license previously only allowed the import of diamonds equal to or larger than one carat that haven't been located in Russia at any time since March 1. The U.K. updated the license to permit the import of diamonds that haven't been located in Russia since Sept. 1 and are smaller than one carat but larger than or equal to one-half carat.
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.
With Russia having recently restarted production of liquefied natural gas at its Western-sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 project, compliance officers should prepare for the increased but “manageable” risks that Russian LNG poses, according to a new report released by Blackstone Compliance Services.
The Treasury Department issued a final rule this week that will make investment advisers subject to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing requirements, which it said will close a loophole that allows criminal actors to hide money in the U.S. and sanctioned companies to access sensitive technology through investments in American firms.