House and Senate negotiators have reached agreement on a final FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that includes legislation to limit U.S. outbound investment in China but omits a Senate proposal to restrict exports of advanced AI chips.
U.S. semiconductor-related export controls against China have been "incredibly successful," mostly because they have forced Beijing to expend more resources trying to advance its domestic chip industry, argued Stephen Brooks, a professor at Dartmouth College who focuses on economics and security.
The U.K. added three Russian intelligence officers and the Russian intelligence agency to its Russia sanctions list on Dec. 4. Vladimir Lipchenko, Yuriy Sizov and Denis Smolyaninov were sanctioned by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation for coordinating "sabotage operations in Ukraine." The intelligence agency is the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, known as GRU.
The Bureau of Industry and Security again renewed a temporary denial order for Siberian Airlines after saying the Russian airline continues to illegally operate aircraft on flights into and out of Russia. The airline has acted in "blatant disregard for U.S. export controls and the terms of previously issued" denial orders, BIS said, pointing to several recent flights it has operated to and from Russia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan. The agency renewed the order for one year from Dec. 3.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week announced a $7.1 million penalty against a New York-based property management firm for receiving payments from another company owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch and metals industry magnate Oleg Deripaska. OFAC said the New York company, Gracetown, Inc., failed to report the blocked assets to OFAC for 45 months after the agency notified the firm that the payments risked violating U.S. sanctions.
House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., said Dec. 4 that he is seeking several changes to a Russia sanctions and tariffs bill that lawmakers are trying to get through Congress this month.
The EU released its new economic security doctrine this week (see 2511170007), outlining plans to build on the bloc’s existing trade defense measures and vowing to more aggressively use investment screening, export controls and other tools to protect EU companies.
The European Parliament released a new study this week about EU sanctions and frozen Russian assets, which examines the legal challenges and possible solutions for using those assets to aid Ukraine. The 108-page paper proposes "viable options for the use of these three asset types as reparations under EU and international law" and argues that the most likely path involves a reparations loan to Ukraine.
The Senate Appropriations Committee unveiled an FY 2026 financial services and general government appropriations bill Nov. 24 that would fully fund the Trump administration’s request for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and the Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
There's concern that Russia-related sanctions coordination among allies could “unravel,” especially as the Trump administration pursues its Russia-Ukraine peace strategy, the U.K. Parliament said in a research briefing last week.