Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Dec. 29 that sanctions should be “strictly enforced” to address Turkey’s reported role in helping Russia's oil industry evade Western sanctions. Blumenthal also said that arms sales to Turkey, such as the F-35 fighter, should be “selectively blocked” until Ankara changes its behavior.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned 10 people and entities based in Venezuela and Iran that it said are involved in trading and producing unmanned aerial vehicles.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control removed several people from its sanctions list this week, including Alexandra Buriko, former chief financial officer of Russian state-owned Sberbank, who resigned from the bank after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. She sued the Treasury Department last year to be removed from the Specially Designated Nationals List, and that lawsuit remains pending.
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The Trump administration plans to convene early next year to try to better organize its approach to AI diffusion and export controls over AI semiconductors, said Paul Triolo, the technology policy lead at advisory firm Albright Stonebridge Group.
DOJ official Alicia Cook has been named acting chief of the Counterterrorism Section of the agency's National Security Division, she announced on LinkedIn. Cook had served as deputy chief since February.
Polish authorities arrested four Polish citizens and one Russian citizen for allegedly illegally importing Russian and Belarusian birch plywood in violation of sanctions, the country's Ministry of Finance said Dec. 29, according to an unofficial translation. The ministry said the plywood was imported into Poland "under false declarations of country of origin -- Kazakhstan and Turkey -- to allow for legal trade within the" EU.
China on Dec. 26 sanctioned 20 U.S. defense firms and 10 executives in response to the State Department's approval of a host of arms sales to Taiwan earlier this month (see 2512180008). The designations target several major defense contractors, their subsidiaries and their senior employees, including Northrop Grumman Systems, L3 Harris Marine Services, Boeing, Sierra Technical Services, Red Cat Holdings and others. The sanctions block their assets in China and prohibit them from carrying out transactions with people or companies in China.
China adopted revisions to its Foreign Trade Law on Dec. 27, the Ministry of Commerce said, according to an unofficial translation. The revisions, effective March 1, include strengthened intellectual property protection measures and new language to "enhance the compliance and risk response capabilities of foreign trade operators regarding intellectual property rights," according to state-run news outlet Xinhua. "The revision also enriches and improves China's legal toolkit on struggles in foreign trade arena, and supplements and refines corresponding countermeasures."
The Treasury Department’s existing outbound investment rule will remain in effect until the agency issues new regulations to implement a newly enacted law on the matter, Treasury said in an updated FAQ Dec. 23.