The two top Republicans on the House and Senate foreign affairs committees are asking for an explanation from the State Department for why it waived sanctions against the company behind the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project (see 2105200055). Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho and Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas said they are “very concerned and disappointed’ by the decision to not sanction Nord Stream 2 AG and asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken to “justify this decision in specific detail” before the House and Senate. “We strongly disagree that it is in the national interests of the United States to issue this waiver, as it will further enable Russian leverage over European allies’ energy supply,” the lawmakers said in a May 25 letter.
Congress and the administration can take a more active role to allow humanitarian aid to better flow to sanctioned regions in Africa, which is often hindered from receiving that aid, charitable groups and sanctions experts told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa May 25. Some of the issues lie with licenses issued by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and a slow bureaucratic process that unintentionally slows aid shipments, they said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on May 21 designated three entities and 13 vessels under the Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act (PEESA), which authorizes sanctions against Russia’s energy sector and its use of energy export pipelines. OFAC also issued a general license to exempt certain transactions with one of the sanctioned entities and issued two new frequently asked questions.
Congressional Republicans are expressing their dismay at the White House notification earlier this week that it will not be imposing sanctions on the CEO of the primary company building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany, even though Congress clearly said it wanted that company to be a sanctions target (see 2104220003). Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., said that all congressional sanctions bills give the president the authority to waive the sanctions, and President Joe Biden is choosing to do so.
President Joe Biden’s nominee to be the State Department’s assistant secretary for Western hemisphere affairs vowed to aggressively sanction human rights violators and said more can be done to stop sanctions evasion tactics. The nominee, Brian Nichols, also told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee May 19 that the agency should coordinate closely with the Treasury Department and voiced support for some of the agency’s Cuba restrictions.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories for May 3-7 in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
In two separate decisions, the European Union General Court dismissed two applications from listed individuals urging the court to annul the acts maintaining their designations on the EU's sanctions list. In an April 28 order, according to an unofficial translation, the court rejected a bid from Syrian businessman Ammar Sharif to depart from the sanctions list because he had failed to rebut the notion that he is no longer an “influential businessman” conducting business in Syria. Sharif did not present sufficient evidence to dispute the European Council's assessment on three of his business activities in Syria, leading to the court's decision.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories for April 26-30 in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
A strong condemnation was issued by the presidents of the European Council, Commission and Parliament on the imposition of restrictive measures against eight European Union officials, the EC announced in an April 30 press release. The condemnation came following Russia's move to ban European Parliament President David Sassoli, European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova and six EU member states' officials from entering the country in retaliation for sanctions placed on Russia. “This decision, which directly targets the European Union and its Member States, is unacceptable, devoid of any legal justification and baseless,” the joint statement in the release said. “It serves to underline that the Russian Federation has so far chosen the path of confrontation instead of seeking to reverse the negative trajectory of EU-Russia relations.”
While Western sanctions against Russia haven’t fully succeeded, they’ve been more effective than widely assumed and have played a significant role in limiting Russia’s economic growth, economists and international relations experts said. The experts urged the U.S. and other Western countries to continue imposing sanctions against Russia, which may dissuade the country from pursuing destabilizing activities in Ukraine and interfering in foreign elections.