President Joe Biden has vowed to continue imposing tough sanctions on Russia, saying that the U.S. and allies will look to seize the property of sanctioned Russian oligarchs and cut Russia’s military off from sensitive technologies. The U.S. and allies will “find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets,” Biden said in a message to Russian oligarchs and government officials during his March 1 State of the Union address. “We are coming for your ill-begotten gains.”
President Joe Biden extended a national emergency that authorizes certain sanctions against people and entities that undermine democracy in Ukraine, the White House said March 2. The emergency was extended for one year beyond March 6.
The U.K. increased its sanctions on Russia, designating the Russian Direct Investment Fund and its CEO Kirill Alexandrovich Dmitriev. Both entities are now subject to an asset freeze, per a March 1 notice from the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation. The RDIF, Russia's sovereign wealth fund, and its CEO already are subject to U.S. sanctions.
The EU March 2 increased its sanctions against Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, removing seven Russian banks from SWIFT, the global interbank messaging service, and sanctioning two Russian state-owned media outlets.
The Department of Justice announced March 2 that it is setting up an interagency task force to enforce the deluge of sanctions imposed by the U.S. against Russia following its assault on Ukraine. Called Task Force KleptoCapture, it will be run by the Office of the Deputy Attorney General.
The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, said the administration could initiate another Section 301 investigation into China's practices in strategic sectors. It said the sources didn't say which sectors, but said there could also be tighter export controls, with greater cooperation with European and Asian allies on subsidies, and that the administration might increase scrutiny of U.S. companies' investments in China. The article said that a Section 301 investigation has been bandied about for months, but that it has new momentum since the talks to build on the Trump administration's phase one trade agreement have been fruitless. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the White House press office didn't respond to requests for comment.
Keeping pace with the multinational sanctions being imposed on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine has become a difficult but necessary task for lawyers and businesses, said sanctions and international trade lawyers at Crowell & Moring on a March 2 briefing hosted by the firm. The sanctions are already remarkably complex, totaling over 1,200 pages of new regulations, and more are expected. This marks the "fastest moving sanctions regime that we have seen," said Dj Wolff, a partner at the firm.
While China may help Russia evade some export controls imposed by the U.S., the EU and others, the fear of secondary sanctions and other trade restrictions will likely deter it from providing significant help to Russia, said Emily Kilcrease, an energy, economics and security expert at the Center for a New American Security. Chinese companies could find themselves on the Entity List for aiding Russia’s export-control evasion efforts, Kilcrease said, and could also face strict trade restrictions by Europe.
The U.S. issued another set of “expansive” Russia sanctions, targeting various Russian oligarchs, allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, their family members and several Russian intelligence disinformation outlets. The designations include more than 80 people and entities in Russia or Ukraine that either offer financial support to the Kremlin or help the government “promulgate disinformation and influence perceptions,” the Treasury Department said.
The U.S. announced a host of new sanctions and export controls, including two new additions to the Entity List, to further penalize Russia and Belarus for the invasion of Ukraine. The measures place new restrictions on technology and software exports to Belarus, export controls on shipments of oil and gas extraction equipment to Russia, blocking sanctions on 22 Russian defense entities and a prohibition on Russian cargo planes flying to and from the U.S.