On March 21, 2014, H.R. 4278, the “Ukraine Support Act” was introduced in the House of Representatives, coinciding with the Senate’s consideration of S. 2124, the “Support for the Sovereignty, Integrity, Democracy, and Economic Stability of Ukraine Act of 2014” Due to significant congressional support for Ukraine and a desire to penalize Russia for its actions, it appears that U.S. Congress will coalesce behind one of these bills or reach a compromise to reconcile the…
US BIS has just published a notice to the effect that it has put on hold the issuance of licences for exports/reexports of items to Russia. BIS will continue this practice until further notice. This notice is available here: http://www.bis.doc.gov. By way of background and according to the annual report for FY2013, BIS approved 1832 applications for exports to Russia in fiscal year 2013 (i.e., 1 October 2012 – 30 September 2013) with a total value…
In retaliation for sanctions imposed by Canada last week, Russia announced on Monday that 13 Canadian officials are now barred from entering Russia. The list includes a range of lawmakers and cabinet members as well as the House of Commons Speaker, the government leader of the house, and the head of the Ukrainian-Canadian Congress. While Russia has stated that it remains open to ‘constructive’ co-operation with Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit to Ukraine over…
Switzerland’s public prosecutor has announced recently that it was investigating associates of Ukraine’s former President, Mr Yanukovych for money laundering. The names of the alleged infringers have not been disclosed. The opening of these proceedings follow the recent freezing orders issued by Switzerland against the former Ukrainian President Yanukovych, his family and other associates closely connected to him. Read more about the recent measures taken by Switzerland, EU, US, Canada, Austria and Lichtenstein in this…