On May 20, 2022, the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) announced the issuance of a temporary denial order denying the export privileges of the airline Rossiya to participate in transactions subject to the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”), including exports and reexports from the United States. BIS previously issued similar orders covering Aeroflot, Azur Air, UTair, and Aviastar-TU. Aeroflot is a majority shareholder of Rossiya, and both airlines own and operate a number of US-origin aircraft, many requiring US-origin replacement parts and components.
In addition, BIS also added a second aircraft owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich to the list of aircraft that have recently flown into Belarus or Russia in apparent violation of the EAR (the “List”). The May 20 listings follow previous listings (on March 18, 2022, March 30, 2022, and April 14, 2022) of Russian aircraft that have flown into Belarus or Russia in apparent violation of the EAR.
In addition, BIS removed several aircraft from the List on May 26, 2022. The current version of the List can be found here. BIS did not issue a statement with the reasoning for these removals. Our prior blog post regarding the publication of the initial List on March 18, 2022 and subsequent updates can be found here and here.
The List is published by BIS as a notice to the general public that the provision of services, whether by a US or non-US person, relating to the listed aircraft is subject to General Prohibition 10 (§ 736.2(b)(10) of the EAR) and requires authorization from BIS. General Prohibition 10 would appear to prohibit the sale, transfer, export, lease, financing, refueling, service, maintenance, repair, or provision of spare parts relating to the listed aircraft. Restrictions on such services make international flights by these aircraft outside of Russia and Belarus virtually impossible. BIS has also emphasized that General Prohibition 10 applies whenever any person (whether US or non-US) has knowledge that an EAR violation has occurred, is about to occur, or is intended to occur in connection with an aircraft or other items that are subject to the EAR, even if the aircraft or other items are not on the List.
