The EU General Court on June 27 dismissed an application from sanctioned Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov for interim measures, according to an unofficial translation. The court ruled his application didn't show urgency or serious irreparable harm because Usmanov only discussed his damages that stemmed from the financial viability of three subsidiaries of USM Holding. Usmanov has a 49% share of the subsidiaries and thus does not control them, the court pointed out. As such, the applicant failed to show a direct causal link between the subsidiaries' finances and his placement, made in February, on the EU's Russian sanctions list.
The U.S. didn’t do enough to penalize the Chinese companies accused by the Commerce Department this week of helping Russia evade export controls (see 2206280056), the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said the U.S should also have placed financial sanctions on the companies, adding that State Department Deputy Secretary Wendy Sherman told the committee in April that China would face “consequences” if its companies provided support to Russia.
Switzerland announced June 29 it's imposing further sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, implementing the EU's most recent sanctions package, which includes an embargo on crude oil and certain refined petroleum products from Russia. The Swiss Federal Council said the sanctions package also adds more than 100 Russian and Belarusian individuals and entities to the sanctions list and bans services related to the oil and petroleum products trade, including insurance or reinsurance for the transport of oil to any destination. The package also bans a number of financial and professional services such as auditing, public relations or consulting for Russian firms. Unlike the EU's sanctions package, Switzerland didn't ban the awarding of public contracts to Russian individuals or organizations with links to the country.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week amended the Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations to implement a Sept. 9, 2019, counterterrorism executive order. The amendments, which take effect July 1, implement the provisions of executive order 13886, “Modernizing Sanctions To Combat Terrorism” that amended sections 1(a) and 5 of Executive Order 13224. The change blocks all property and interests in property that are in the U.S. of persons listed in the amended Annex to E.O. 13224, foreign persons determined by the secretary of state to have committed or have attempted to commit acts of terrorism. It also makes certain "technical and conforming changes" to the regulations.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is preparing to publish several new export control rules, including one that will request feedback on U.S. Munitions List categories and another that will consolidate exemptions under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. DDTC is also starting to review a more complex set of Ukraine-related export licenses after moving through some of the more straightforward applications earlier this year.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on June 30 announced several policy changes designed to strengthen its administrative enforcement tools and penalties. Under the changes, outlined at the agency’s annual update conference by Matthew Axelrod, the agency’s top enforcement official, BIS will raise penalties for more serious violations; revise its policies surrounding its no-admit, no-deny settlements; begin offering settlement agreements that don’t include fines; and revise how the agency processes voluntary disclosures.
The U.K.'s Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs Task Force has blocked or frozen over $30 billion in sanctioned Russian assets, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced. The task force has frozen or seized sanctioned individuals' "high-value goods," and restricted sanctioned individuals' access to the international financial system, OFSI said. Through coordination between REPO Task Force members, around $300 billion of Russian Central Bank assets have been frozen, various yachts and other vessels controlled by sanctioned Russians detained and access to the global financial system cut off.
The U.K. added new entries to its Russia and Syria sanctions regimes in a pair of notices June 29. Under its Russia sanctions list, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation added entries for eight individuals and five entities. The listed entities are the Joint Stock Company Marshal.Global, Joint Stock Company Moscow Industrial Bank, JSC Kolmar Group, JSC New Opportunities and R-Style Softlab.
The U.K. penalized energy company Tracerco for violating its sanctions regime on Syria, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced in a June 29 update. The penalty, which was imposed in May, was about $18,000 and for making funds available to benefit a sanctioned entity without a license from OFSI.
The Bureau of Industry and Security doesn’t have export control officers in Russia but has other means to monitor violations and to assess license applications, said Matthew Axelrod, the agency’s top export enforcement official. Although BIS can’t conduct end-use checks in the country, it can still turn to “open source reporting” and other intelligence when considering a license, Axelrod said. “We have a lot of different tools at our disposal to help inform the licensing process,” he said during a June 29 news conference.