The Council of the European Union on June 30 renewed sanctions on Russia for an additional six months, pushing them to Jan. 31, 2026. The measures, first imposed in 2014 due to Russian attacks against Ukrainian sovereignty, currently consist of broad sectoral measures and efforts to combat sanctions circumvention. The measures also include a "ban on the import or transfer of seaborne crude oil and certain petroleum products from Russia to the EU."
The U.K. last week warned foreign companies that it may sanction them if they’re involved in activities that could contribute to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, leading to “serious consequences for your business and other financial dealings.” The country’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said British businesses are also on the lookout for companies that may be doing prohibited business with Russia, and if U.K. companies can’t be "assured" that a foreign firm isn’t involved with Russia, “some UK companies may take a cautious approach (sometimes termed ‘de-risking’) and refuse to do business with you.”
A bipartisan group of five House members, including House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill, R-Ark., reintroduced a bill June 26 to create a State Sponsor of Unlawful or Wrongful Detention (SSWD) designation, which would allow the State Department to impose sanctions, arms export restrictions and other penalties on countries that wrongfully detain Americans.
The U.K. on June 26 amended various entries on its Russia sanctions list, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced. The U.K. made changes to entries for 14 people that were originally sanctioned for undermining Ukrainian sovereignty through their work at the Social Design Agency, a Russian social media and marketing firm. OFSI also revised the entries for two entities: Rosneft Marine (UK) and the Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation.
The U.S. should quickly move forward with new secondary sanctions against supporters of Russia, government leaders and think tank officials said this week, and they urged the EU to do more to hold Beijing accountable for helping Russia evade sanctions.
An Israeli telecommunications and cybersecurity technology company told the Bureau of Industry and Security that it may have violated export controls against Russia and Belarus.
Former U.S. and U.K. national security officials warned the British government about aligning too closely with a decoupling strategy toward China, saying this week that the U.K. should carefully manage sensitive trade issues but not in a way that strains economic ties with Beijing.
A large U.S. sanctions penalty earlier this month is a sign of the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s rising compliance expectations for investment firms, accountants, wealth advisers and other financial “gatekeepers,” particularly if they’re aware that funds may be indirectly tied to a sanctioned person, law firms said. The fine, which was the largest OFAC penalty since 2023, also could begin a trend of tougher enforcement on those gatekeepers, law firms said, especially if they rely on wrong legal advice or don’t fully cooperate with OFAC.
Sanctioned Russian shadow fleet vessels can receive port access and services at an EU port if they’re carrying dangerous or polluting goods that need to be unloaded, the European Commission said in a new FAQ last week. Those vessels can offload “for a unique emergency port call” if they were sanctioned while they were carrying the cargo, the FAQ said, “and in any case not later than 30 days from the date of targeting.” It also said a “60-day winddown period is justified” in cases where other circumstances “do not allow for an earlier offloading of the dangerous or polluting goods and serious risks persist that could endanger human life, marine environments, and coastal infrastructure.”
Efforts to prevent sanctions evasion will grow “increasingly difficult” in the coming years, especially as evaders make better use of emerging technologies and find new loopholes in trade regulations, the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force warned countries and companies this month.