The Indian government has asked its banks and traders to adhere to Western sanctions imposed against Moscow, including the price cap on oil set by G-7 countries, Bloomberg reported March 12. Although India has reportedly increased its purchases of Russian energy to take advantage of discounted prices, the country is buying oil “well below” the price cap, the report said, and is not looking to breach other sanctions imposed against Moscow.

The countries behind INSTEX, the European payment system designed to allow countries to trade with Iran despite U.S. sanctions (see 1907010057 and 1905300035), said they will dissolve the system because of hurdles created by Iran. In a March 9 joint statement, Germany, France and the U.K. said Iran agreed only to a “single transaction” (see 2004010016) and “consistently and deliberately blocked other proposals for transactions.”

President Joe Biden last week extended for one year beyond March 15 a national emergency that authorizes certain sanctions related to Iran. The White House said Iran continues to participate in the "proliferation and development of missiles and other asymmetric and conventional weapons capabilities," support terrorist groups and otherwise threaten U.S. national security.

The U.N. Security Council and the U.K. last week removed two Iraq-related entries from their sanctions lists. The update removes the entries for Ayad Futayyih Khalifa Al-Rawi and Humam Abd-al-Khaliq Abd-al-Ghafur.

Based on 2022 U.S. sanctions enforcement trends, companies should make sure to scale their sanctions compliance programs along with their business expansions, continually conduct audits and make sure employees are properly trained on sanctions compliance, Morrison & Foerster said in a March 6 client alert. The alert explores some of the lessons companies can learn from the Treasury Department’s penalties last year, including that “insufficient oversight” during a merger process can lead to sanctions risks, and all companies -- large or small -- will be held to Treasury’s sanctions compliance standards.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week announced a host of new Iran-related sanctions, including new designations against a “shadow banking” network aiding Iranian entities and new sanctions against a network of Chinese companies with ties to the country's unmanned drone industry. The designations target 39 entities illegally allowing Iranian companies to access the international financial system and a network of five companies supporting Iran’s unmanned aerial vehicle procurement efforts.

The U.S. this week removed sanctions on a former Kazakhstan-based subsidiary of Russia’s Sberbank after the subsidiary changed ownership and asked the Treasury Department to delete the bank from its Specially Designated Nationals List. The subsidiary, now owned by the Kazakhstan government, is "one of the largest banks in Kazakhstan" and "systemically important to the Kazakhstani financial industry," a Treasury spokesperson said March 8, adding that the agency worked "closely" with the Kazakhstan government to help it complete the purchase.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned eight Iranian officials and three Iranian entities for their ties to human rights abuses against women and girls. The designations target senior officials in Iran’s prison system, a top army commander, a high-ranking leader in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and others. Also sanctioned was Iranian security services supplier Naji Pas Co. and CEO Reza Asgharian; security services provider Naji Pars Amin Institute and CEO Bahram Abdollahinejad; and police equipment importer Entebagh Gostar Sepehr Co. and CEO Gholamreza Ramezanian Sani.

The U.N. Security Council last week amended one Democratic Republic of the Congo-related entry on its sanctions list. The update revises identifying and other information for Taganda Bosco, the former military commander for a political armed militia in the DRC who was convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Court in 2021.

The U.S. last week sanctioned five Russian officials and one "expert witness" involved in the arrest and imprisonment of Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza. The designations came after lawmakers, including Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Jim Risch, R-Idaho, asked the administration to impose Magnitsky human rights sanctions against Russia for the arrest of Kara-Murza, who has spoken against the war in Ukraine (see 2209270021 and 2301260046).