Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said late Jan. 27 that he plans to introduce legislation in the “coming weeks” to sanction Belarus over its “sham” presidential election.
A bill to sanction International Criminal Court (ICC) officials failed to gain enough votes to limit Senate debate on the measure Jan. 28, leaving its fate in doubt.
The European Union on Jan. 27 sanctioned three Russian individuals for their "malicious cyber activities against Estonia" carried out in 2020. The individuals are all officers of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Unit 29155. The officers gained unauthorized access to classified and sensitive information stored within Estonian government ministries, "leading to the theft of thousands of confidential documents," the Council of the EU said. Unit 29155 also conducts cyberattacks against other European nations, including Ukraine, the council said.
The auction process for ships to pass through the Panama Canal when the water is low, and the fact that a Hong Kong company owns ports by the entrance and exit of the Panama Canal were the focuses of a Senate hearing on the canal -- but the way Iranian ships used Panama to evade sanctions also came up.
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The Trump administration may be beginning to favor the use of trade policy tools like tariffs to replace sanctions to compel foreign policy, researchers said on a podcast hosted by the Center for a New American Security last week.
House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., said Jan. 28 that the U.S. should place stronger export controls on technologies critical to the infrastructure of an advanced new Chinese artificial intelligence model.
Kelley Drye added four attorneys from Sandler Travis to its export controls and economic sanctions team, the firm announced. The new additions are partner Kristine Pirnia, special counsel Catherine Cayce, associates Narges Kahvazadeh and Sanam Bhalla, along with non-attorney export controls specialist Molly Stevens.
The Council of the European Union on Jan. 27 extended its sanctions on Russia for an additional six months, pushing them to July 31. The measures include various sectoral restrictions, including those on "trade, finance, energy, technology and dual-use goods, industry, transport and luxury goods," and also include a ban on the import of oil and petroleum products from Russia.
The U.K. and Canada announced coordinated sanctions this week against people and entities tied to human rights violations committed by the Alexander Lukashenko regime in Belarus as well as the regime’s support of Russia. The U.K. is targeting several senior Belarusian officials and entities working in the country’s defense sector. The Canadian sanctions target three Belarusian state organizations, nine entities that produced or supplied military equipment for Russia, and several senior executives working for those entities.