The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission published a primer this week on China's relationship with Venezuela, including details about China's purchases of Venezuelan oil despite U.S. sanctions. The commission said China has become the "primary destination" for sanctioned Venezuelan oil, and Beijing uses sanctions evasion measures "similar to those it uses to import oil from other sanctioned countries like Iran and Russia, including transshipment, bartering, and 'shadow fleet' tankers with opaque ownership." Although the U.S. has sanctioned Chinese entities for cyber and surveillance operations in Venezuela, the report said designations against Chinese parties under Venezuela-related sanctions programs "had been exceedingly rare" until December, when the Office of Foreign Assets Control targeted four Chinese companies and their vessels for operating in Venezuela's oil sector (see 2512310074).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week extended a Russia-related general license that authorizes certain transactions for the negotiation of and entry into contingent contracts for the sale of Lukoil International GmbH -- the international business of Russian energy firm Lukoil -- and related maintenance activities. General License 131B, which replaces 131A, now expires at 12:01 a.m. ET Feb. 28. The license was scheduled to expire Jan. 17.
The U.S. highlighted at the U.N. this week what it called North Korea's continued violations of sanctions violations and its attempted evasion of those measures, including through cryptocurrency, cybercrime, its deployments of information technology workers around the world, and more. The findings were outlined in a report from the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, a group formed to report on North Korea-related sanctions breaches (see 2410170003).
The U.S. this week sanctioned the Egyptian, Jordanian and Lebanese branches of the Muslim Brotherhood for their support of Hamas and terrorism, the Treasury and State departments announced. The State Department specifically labeled the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and it also applied the SDGT label to Muhammad Fawzi Taqqosh, who Treasury said is the secretary general of the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood.
The Council of the European Union on Jan. 9 renewed its sanctions on Guatemala for an additional year, extending them to Jan. 13, 2027. The measures apply to eight people and one entity.
The U.S.'s recent repeal of the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019 “will be a significant step towards greater investment and economic activity” in the war-torn country, but challenges persist more than a year after the ouster of President Bashar Assad, a trade lawyer said in an interview Jan. 8.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week that his agency plans to eventually lift sanctions against Venezuela and is receiving significant interest from independent oil companies that want to reenter the market.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week removed Kyriaki Demetriou Kamperi from its Specially Designated Nationals List after originally sanctioning him in 2023 for his Russia ties. The U.S. at the time said Kamperi was a "leader, official, senior executive officer, or member of the board of directors of" the Russian government and Russian bank Sberbank. The U.S. also said he had ties to companies owned by Christodoulos Georgiou Vassiliades, who was also designated for being a Sberbank executive. OFAC updated the SDN entry for the company Vassiliades & Co UK Limited to remove a reference to Kamperi.
The U.S. seized two vessels on the high seas Jan. 7 after saying they had violated U.S. sanctions.
Switzerland announced this week that it has frozen assets held within the country by Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan leader captured by the U.S. earlier this month, along with the assets of "other persons associated with him." The country's Federal Council said the move is aimed at preventing "an outflow of assets."