Despite reports Russia has found ways to evade sanctions and export controls, those trade restrictions are working, experts said during a Feb. 8 panel discussion hosted by the Atlantic Council. At least one official said the sanctions will need continual tuning to remain effective.
Despite the massive sanctions imposed on Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine, the country has seen a 6% increase in capital expenditure, contrasted with initial forecasts of an up to a 20% decline, Bloomberg reported Feb. 8. Russia's response to the sanctions has been to spend its way out, with large and small companies looking to replace foreign equipment and software or funnelling money into building new supply chains to reach new markets. Bloomberg said that while investment has allowed Russia to stave off many of the worst economic effects of the sanctions and export controls, its investment future is much more bleak. Bloomberg Economics predicts that fixed-asset investment will dry up by 5% in 2023. While government and state-owned corporate investment may yet further increase, private sector investment is poised to dip.
The U.K. added eight individuals and seven entities to its Russia sanctions regime, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced.
The EU removed Dmitry Vladimirovich Ovsyannikov, a former governor of Sevastopol, from its Russia sanctions list, according to a European Council decision published Feb. 7. The governor was removed in line with the EU General Court's ruling removing his designation in October. The designation was renewed in September before judgment was rendered.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week published a new Russia-related frequently asked question providing guidance on Russian securities transferring through inheritance. FAQ 1113 explains that investment prohibitions under executive orders 14066, 14068 and 14071 don't prevent securities issued by non-blocked Russian entities from transferring to their beneficiaries as long as those transfers are "part of the ordinary course administration of the decedent’s estate," don't "involve an exchange for value," and "have no other sanctions nexus." Blocked securities in an estate, however, remain blocked and require a specific license from OFAC to transfer.
The EU is readying its 10th package of sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in a Feb. 3 statement following the EU-Ukraine summit. Aiming to have the sanctions package imposed by the Feb. 24 one-year anniversary of the war, the EU reportedly will focus on technology that Russia's military could use and on reducing sanctions circumvention.
Vladimir Voronchenko, a Russian citizen and legal permanent resident of the U.S., was charged with participating in a scheme to net over $4 million to maintain four properties in the U.S. owned by sanctioned oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, DOJ announced. Voronchenko also tried to sell two of the properties.
The U.K.'s prohibition on the maritime transport of refined oil products from Russia and the provision of related services came into force Feb. 5, along with $100 and $45 price cap exceptions for oil products traded at a premium to crude and at a discount to crude, respectively. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation concurrently issued an updated guidance on the ban and oil price cap, which covers an overview of the ban, compliance and enforcement, exceptions and licensing, attestation with example scenarios, reporting requirements, definitions and examples of where the ban will not apply.
The U.K. Commercial Court released a judgment in a case concerning vessels financed by the Russian transport ministry. The proceeding deals with a Cypriot charterer, Garvelor, which claimed specific performance of obligations it was owed under a bareboat charterparty by the vessel owners -- subsidiaries of sanctioned company GTLK. The subsidiaries provided for Gravelor to make payments for the vessels and for the title of the vessels to be transferred to them when the charterparty was terminated. However, sanctions made it illegal for Gravelor to pay the subsidiaries in U.S. dollars, which the charterparties required. The Commercial Court held that tendering payment in euros to a frozen account filled the contractual obligation to pay, granting an order to transfer the title of the vessels to Gravelor after considering the sanctions impact.
Russian customs data shows the country’s sanctioned defense companies are buying navigation equipment, jamming technology, jet-fighter parts and more from China, The Wall Street Journal reported Feb. 4. Russia has imported tens of thousands of shipments of dual-use goods since its invasion of Ukraine last year, most of them from China, the report said. Although the U.S. and other Western nations have imposed strict export controls on technology to stop sensitive items from being sent to Russia, Moscow is able to sustain its military needs through countries that haven’t joined the U.S.-led sanctions effort, the report said, including Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. But Chinese companies are the “dominant exporters” of dual-use items to Russia, the report said.