The U.K. on July 7 added two people and one entity to its chemical weapons sanctions list. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation sanctioned Aleksey Rtishchev and Andrei Marchenko, the head and deputy head of the Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops of the Russian Ministry of Defense, respectively. The listed entity is the Joint Stock Co. Federal Scientific and Production Centre Scientific Research Institute of Applied Chemistry, which supplies riot control agent grenades to the Russian military.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control removed a range of Iran-, Iraq- and Syria-related entries from its Specifically Designated Nationals List this week, including former Iraqi Trade Minister Muhammad Mahdi Salih; Syria-based Al-Ra'y Satellite Television Channel; and Swedish Management Co., which was originally designated for moving Iranian petrochemical products, and several of its vessels. OFAC didn't release more information about the removals.
The U.S. this week sanctioned U.N. official Francesca Paola Albanese for working with the International Criminal Court to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute U.S. or Israeli nationals with ties to alleged human rights abuses being carried out by Israel against Palestinians. The State Department said Albanese is aiding with that investigatory work "without the consent of" the U.S. and Israel. Neither country is a party to the Rome Statute -- the treaty that established the ICC -- "making this action a gross infringement on the sovereignty of both countries," the State Department said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned more than 20 entities in Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey for helping to sell Iranian oil in support of the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force. The designations target some companies that OFAC said have bought hundreds of millions of dollars of Iranian oil combined.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is progressing on a final rule that would relax certain export controls on Syria. BIS sent the rule for interagency review June 8, about a month after an agency official confirmed that BIS planned to lift some controls over the country (see 2506100052). President Donald Trump on June 30 authorized the "relaxation" of Syria-related export controls, specifically with respect to items on the Commerce Control List (see 2506300055).
Microsoft President Brad Smith this week warned the U.S. against introducing new export controls that could prevent American companies from becoming the world’s leading exporters of AI services, suggesting the Trump administration should instead look into expanding or replicating the AI deal it announced in May with the United Arab Emirates.
A bill that could impose a wide range of sanctions on Russia and its supporters if Moscow refuses to negotiate a peace agreement with Ukraine might head to the Senate floor before the August congressional recess, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said July 9.
Alison Cooper has left her role as the Office of Foreign Assets Control's enforcement chief to join the Navy Federal Credit Union, where she will manage issues related to OFAC and the Bank Secrecy Act, she announced on LinkedIn. Cooper worked at OFAC for over two decades, from 1997 to 2011 and again from 2017 until she left this month.
The U.K. fined a British exporter $1,160,725.67 pounds (about $1.57 million) for violating sanctions against Russia, the country’s Revenue and Customs agency announced July 8. The penalty represented the largest settlement ever issued by the U.K.’s customs agency for a Russia-related sanctions breach. The exporter “made goods available to Russia in breach of” the sanctions, the U.K. said, but it provided no further details.
Reps. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, and Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., introduced a bill July 7 that would give the Treasury Department expanded authority to prohibit U.S. bank access for foreign financial institutions that serve Russia’s energy sector or sanctioned Russian entities.