Although Chinese companies with little international exposure may decide to violate export restrictions against Russia, most of the larger companies likely won’t take the risk, experts said. So far, most Chinese companies are complying with the sanctions and only continuing to buy Russian oil and gas, the experts said, despite strong opposition to Western sanctions by the Chinese government.
Rachel Fiorill, former enforcement section chief at the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, joined Morrison Foerster as of counsel in the Washington, D.C., office, the firm announced. Fiorill most recently worked at Paul Weiss, where she advised clients on "economic sanctions, Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering," anti-corruption and export control proceedings. While at OFAC, Fiorill led investigations of hundreds of enforcement actions, serving as coordinator for the Enforcement Division's Ukraine, Russia and Syria-related investigations, Morrison Foerster said.
The U.K. dropped nine entries from its cyber sanctions regime, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced in a July 5 notice. OFSI removed eight individuals -- Aleyona Chuguleva, Darya Dugina, Yuriy Fedin, Denis Gafner, Yevgeniy Glotov, Valeriya Kalabayeva, Aelita Mamakova and Mikhail Sinelin -- and one entity, United World International, from the consolidated list. All remain subject to an asset freeze under the Russia regime.
The U.K. released three general licenses pertaining to its Russian sanctions regime. The first, "Wind Down of Positions Involving Rosbank," allows until July 30 an individual or entity to wind down any transactions to which it is a party involving Rosbank or a subsidiary. Such action includes closing out of any positions, repaying loans, withdrawing deposits and closing accounts. The next license, "Wind down positions involving National Bank of Belarus," allows an individual to give financial services for winding down any "derivatives, repurchase, and reverse purchase transactions" entered into before July 5 with the National Bank of Belarus, Ministry of Finance of Belarus and those individuals listed under the Belarus sanctions regime. The last license, "Transferable securities, money market instruments, loans and credit arrangements," permits a seven-day wind down period for category C loans and transferable securities and money market instruments under the Belarus sanctions regime.
The U.K. on July 4 amended its Russian sanctions guidance page on prohibitions on insurance and reinsurance services for aviation and space goods to an individual or entity connected with Russia or for use in Russia. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said the "provision of insurance and reinsurance services in respect of a satellite where the only nexus with Russia is that it is orbiting over Russia, or broadcasting to Russia (and where the insurance and reinsurance services will not be provided to a person connected with Russia), would likewise not come within the scope of these prohibitions."
The U.K. added seven new entries to its Russia sanctions list while imposing new trade restrictions on Belarus in response to the continued invasion of Ukraine.
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The European Council on June 30 requested the consent of the European Parliament to add the violation of restrictive measures to the list of "EU Crimes" laid out in the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, the council said. The move is intended to crack down on the circumvention on the EU's many sanctions regimes, most notably Russia restrictions made following the invasion of Ukraine. With EU member states having different definitions of what constitutes a violation of the EU's sanctions regimes, the council said that greater effort is needed to harmonize sanctions enforcement.
The State Department declined to say whether the U.S. will impose financial sanctions against the Chinese companies accused by the Commerce Department last week of helping Russia evade export controls. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, last week called on the agency to impose the sanctions (see 2206300007) and go beyond Commerce’s move of adding them to the Entity List (see 2206280056).
The Bureau of Industry and Security plans to add more attorneys to its chief counsel's office to keep pace with its Russia-related export controls, a Commerce Department official said during the BIS annual update conference last week. The counsel has about 15 lawyers but expects to add more “in the coming months,” said the official, speaking on background as part of a conference policy for career staff. “It really has been unprecedented times over the past six months,” the official said, adding that the counsel’s office wants “to make sure that we can match” the rest of the agency “as the amount and intensity of work continues.”