The Biden administration expects the incoming Trump administration to continue to try to limit growing Chinese support of Russia's defense industrial base, a senior administration official said this week.
A Ukrainian citizen last living in Estonia was sentenced on Nov. 13 to 33 months in prison for skirting U.S. export laws by trying to smuggle a dual-use export-controlled "500 Series CPWZ Precision Jig Grinder" to Russia, DOJ announced. Stanislav Romanyuk, who was charged in 2022 (see 2210200023), pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme, admitting to brokering the sale of the jig grinder from an Estonia-based company he operated.
More than 80 House and Senate Democrats urged the Biden administration to sanction two Israeli officials -- Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir -- for spurring destabilizing activity in the West Bank, including settler violence against Palestinians and “illegal and dangerous” settlement expansion.
Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, introduced a bill Nov. 13 that would authorize the president to sanction foreign individuals and companies that are most responsible for exacerbating climate change and deforestation.
The incoming Trump administration likely will end the Biden administration’s temporary pause on pending decisions for liquefied natural gas exports, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said late Nov. 13.
Switzerland this week sanctioned three people and one entity with ties to the Myanmar military and human rights violations in the country. The designations target Saw Chit Thu, Mote Thun and Tin Win, officials involved with the Karen National Army, an armed group linked to the country’s military. Switzerland also sanctioned Chit Linn Myaing Group, a group of companies controlled by Saw Chit Thu.
The U.S. this week designated 26 companies, people and vessels linked to the sanctioned Al-Qatirji Company, a Syrian conglomerate that OFAC said generates hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force and the Yemen-based Houthis by selling Iranian oil to Syria and China.
Companies have not encountered any major hurdles as they seek to comply with the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s new interim final rule extending sanctions-related record-keeping requirements from five years to 10 years, according to two trade lawyers interviewed.
A subsidiary of American insurance firm MetLife will pay $178,421 to settle allegations that it violated U.S. sanctions by maintaining insurance policies for entities controlled by the Iranian government.
The Trump administration would be unwise to expand its export controls to cover older-generation semiconductors destined to China, but it could pursue new restrictions over less advanced versions of the tools used to make certain chips, technology policy analysts said in interviews, particularly if it’s willing to be more aggressive than the Biden administration in talks with the Dutch and Japanese.