The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring the Crimean referendum illegal. Whilst 100 UN Member States have voted in favour of the resolution, Russia declared that it was “encouraging” to see that 58 countries abstained (including China, India, Iran, Israel and South Africa) and 11 voted against the resolution (including Armenia, Belarus, Cuba, North Korea, Sudan and Syria). Despite the majority vote, however, a General Assembly resolution is not binding on the UN Member…
Iceland and Norway imposed travel bans and asset freezes against 21 Russian politicians and officials on 20 March and 21 March respectively. These lists of individuals mirror the list of persons who were designated by the EU under Council Regulation (EU) No 269/2014 on 17 March 2014. In line with the EU measures, these sanctions will restrict the ability of the named individuals to travel and will freeze their assets in Iceland and Norway respectively.…
Comments by David Cameron in London and President Obama in Brussels today appear to indicate that no further sanctions will be imposed against Russia in relation to its existing actions regarding the annexation of Crimea. Whilst Cameron told MPs in parliament that a ‘strong, robust and powerful’ package of trade, financial and economic sanctions is being drawn up by the European Union, both leaders suggested that they will only be put in place should Russia…
Switzerland has issued a statement condemning Russia’s annexation of Crimea and imposing restrictive measures accordingly. Although the measures announced by the Swiss Federal Council today fall short of the sanctions imposed by the international community, the Swiss authorities have frozen assets held by the former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych ‘and his entourage in Switzerland’ (as previously reported in our client alert), halted exports of ‘war materiel’ to Russia, and suspended military training programmes and negotiations for…