On Friday, August 1, 2014, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) issued an advance copy of a final rule amending the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) by, among other things, imposing significant new restrictions on exports, reexports, and in-country transfers of certain goods, software, technology, and data for use in Russia’s oil and gas sector related to deepwater, Arctic offshore, and shale exploration and production operations (the “EAR Amendments”). The EAR…

Effective Tuesday, July 29, 2014, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) announced an expansion of sanctions related to the crisis in Ukraine by designating a Russian shipbuilding company as a “Specially Designated National” (“SDN”) and by adding three Russian banks to the list of entities subject to OFAC’s sectoral sanctions targeting parties operating in certain sectors of the Russian economy. On the same day, the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry…