The Biden administration hopes that new export controls and sanctions against Russia's war machine suppliers, including China, will spur Beijing to rethink its support for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, a State Department official said June 26.
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation on June 25 removed sanctions from Aleksei Nikolaevich Filippovskii, director of PJSC Alrosa, a company operating in Russia's mining sector. The U.K. had sanctioned Filippovskii for working in a "sector of strategic significance" to the Russian government. OFSI didn't provide more information.
Japan recently announced sanctions and export restrictions on people and companies for aiding Russian war efforts against Ukraine, including parties in China, India, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, according to an unofficial translation of a notice from Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
Russia has been able to sustain its war effort against Ukraine because of its ability to evade Western export controls on key military parts and semiconductors, said Maria Snegovaya, a senior fellow with the Europe, Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She said Russia is importing large amounts of controlled items from China and continuing to indirectly buy from Eastern European nations like Turkey through transshipment tactics and shell companies.
A bipartisan group of five lawmakers urged congressional leaders in a June 25 letter to schedule House and Senate floor time on a bill that would allow Ukraine to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in Russian assets forfeited due to export control or sanctions violations.
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The Council of the European Union on June 24 sanctioned six people for cyberattacks on information systems involving "critical infrastructure, critical state functions, the storage or processing of classified information and government emergency response teams in EU member states." The individuals include members of Callisto, a group of Russian military intelligence offers carrying out cyber operations on EU member states and third countries. Others include members of the Armageddon hacker group, which is backed by Russia's Federal Security Service, and two developers of the Conti, Trickbot and Wizard Spider malwares.
The EU this week unveiled its 14th sanctions package against Russia for its war on Ukraine, including new due diligence rules for companies with counterparties that may be selling to Russia. The package also includes new measures to prevent sanctions evasion, new import and export controls, a set of servicing restrictions on certain Russian energy shipments, designations of more than 100 people and entities, and more.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned 12 executives working for Kaspersky, the Russian cybersecurity software firm, for working in Russia’s technology sector. The designations target senior officials of AO Kaspersky Lab one day after the Commerce Department announced that it would be adding the lab, as well as Russia-based OOO Kaspersky Group and U.K.-based Kaspersky Labs Limited, to the Entity List (see 2406200032).
The U.K. issued a general license under its Russia sanctions regime allowing sanctioned parties to make all required payments to the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority. The license doesn't apply to any fees for an application for permission to conduct activities that fall "within any function of the FCA," or payments to the FCA "of a levy imposed by the scheme manager of the Financial Compensation Scheme." Sanctioned parties also can't make payments to the FCA that are collected by the FAC on behalf of the Financial Reporting Council. The license also requires sanctioned parties to "keep accurate, complete, and readable records" of any activity permitted under the license for six years. The license took effect June 20.