Alaska's two Republican senators, Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski, introduced a bill that would ban the import of Russian seafood products. Russia doesn't import U.S. seafood products anymore, in retaliation for sanctions Western nations imposed after Russia invaded Crimea, part of Ukraine, a region that it later annexed. The bill, which the senators announced Dec. 11 but introduced earlier this week, is called the U.S.-Russian Federation Seafood Reciprocity Act.
The Russian government planned to meet with about 100 domestic electronics manufacturers, consumers and financial firms Feb. 12 to discuss methods to avoid various trade restrictions imposed by foreign countries, according to an unofficial translation of a Feb. 11 report from the Russian daily Kommersant. The talks, planned as Russia prepares a military invasion into Ukraine, were expected to include a “strategic session” on how the Russian companies can “diversify import channels” to mitigate the restrictions. Officials were to speak about “adjusting measures to support electronics manufacturers, developing independent chip production in Russia, as well as the prospects for import substitution in the segment of laptops, workstations and servers,” the report said. Companies expected to participate include SberBank, Rostelecom, Baikal Electronics and Rostec. The U.S., the European Union and others are preparing a new set of export controls and sanctions against Russia if it further invades Ukraine (see 2201250042).
Although the Commerce and State departments have been able to conduct some export end-use checks during the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said both agencies continue to face challenges scheduling on-site inspections.
Senators said they are continuing to negotiate the details of a comprehensive Russia sanctions bill Feb. 8 and hope to reach an agreement quickly. Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declined to say what the final sticking points are, but said they need to be cleared up soon. “We’re running out of runway here,” Risch told reporters on Capitol Hill, “and it’s really important that we get this done.”
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Officials from the State, Treasury and Commerce departments are meeting with EU officials in Europe this week to discuss sanctions and export control coordination efforts in case Russia invades Ukraine, according to officials from both agencies. The delegation includes several senior officials -- Elizabeth Rosenberg, Treasury’s assistant secretary for terrorist financing, and Thea Kendler, assistant secretary for export administration at the Bureau of Industry and Security, among them -- the officials said, who will discuss various “sanctions options” and export control responses against Russia. The officials will meet with delegations from the U.K., France, Belgium and Germany.
The EU should build a sanctions regime against disinformation, a European Parliament Special Committee on Foreign Interference said in the final conclusions of an 18-month investigation. The committee said that the European public and government are "'overwhelmingly' unaware of the severity of the threat posed by foreign autocratic regimes," namely, Russia and China. This leads to a particular vulnerability to cyberattacks and the recruitment of former senior officials to help polarize the public debate, the report said. To counter such threats, the committee recommended supporting "pluralistic media" and fact-checkers, making online platforms invest in language skills to act on illegal and harmful content, designating digital election infrastructure as critical, banning foreign funding of European political parties and improving cybersecurity, among other things. The committee also recommended a sanctions regime to combat disinformation.
Companies could face a variety of compliance challenges if the U.S. expands its foreign direct product rule to capture exports to Russia, Cooley's Annie Froehlich, an export control lawyer, said in a Feb. 3 Atlantic Council blog post. The U.S. has reportedly considered using the rule if Russia further invades Ukraine, which could limit Russia’s ability to import certain foreign-produced chips, integrated circuits and microprocessors, the post said. “If regulatory actions are imposed, assessing exposure and implementing appropriate compliance responses will be challenging.”
The Biden administration’s closed briefing to lawmakers on Feb. 3 only underlined the need for strong U.S. sanctions against Russia, several senators said. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said administration officials gave a “factual assessment” of the dire situation at the Ukrainian border, which could soon see a Russian military invasion. “It's really hard to listen to all that and not conclude that we need to do more,” Coons told reporters on Capitol Hill. “Everything should be on the table in terms of sanctions.”
The U.S. will penalize China if it tries to help Russia evade impending U.S. export controls that would be imposed if President Vladimir Putin invades Ukraine, the State Department said. Those measures would be coordinated with allies, spokesperson Ned Price told reporters Feb. 3.