On 21 March 2025, the UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (“OFSI”) published its 2023-2024 annual review (see here). The report summarises OFSI’s activities for the 2023-24 financial year in the context of its aim to “Engage, Enhance, Enforce”. This involves industry engagement to improve understanding of UK sanctions, enhancing stakeholder service through increased hiring and investment, and enforcing compliance using a full range of actions and improved processes. Although OFSI’s report indicates that the…
As anticipated in its press release, the EU yesterday published in the Official Journal the first legal instruments underpinning its decision to progressively suspend its sanctions against Syria: Decision 2025/406/CFSP, Council Regulation 2025/407 and Council Implementing Regulation 2025/408. The measures include the suspension of a significant number of sanctions which have been in place for over a decade, most recently contained within Council Regulation 36/2012, as summarised below. Companies considering business in Syria previously restricted…
As announced in its press release, on 24 February 2025, exactly three years after Russia invaded Ukraine, the EU published its 16th package of sanctions against Russia in the Official Journal. The package entered into force on 25 February 2025. The EU also introduced new measures against Belarus and Crimea and Sevastopol and certain non-Government controlled areas of Ukraine, largely aligning with the Russia sanctions measures. Aside from additional designated person listings, this latest package…
On 11 February 2025, we saw the first public multi-jurisdictional coordinated sanctions action under the Trump Administration when the United States, Australia, and the UK announced joint sanctions against alleged key members of a Russian cybercrime supply chain. This action was taken by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (“UK FCDO”). See the US…