On 26 February 2021, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Canada and the US released a coordinated statement condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and committing to further restrictive measures, including: Ensuring that selected Russian banks are removed from the SWIFT messaging system, which facilitates global cross-border financial transfers. The affected banks have not yet been named.Imposing restrictive measures that will prevent the Russian Central Bank from deploying its international reserves in ways…
The European Council has this evening confirmed that it has agreed on further restrictive measures that will impose “massive and severe consequences on Russia” for its action, in close coordination with our partners and allies. According to the Council conclusions, these sanctions cover the financial sector, the energy and transport sectors, dual-use goods, as well as export control and export financing, visa policy, additional listings of Russian individuals and new listing criteria. Fuller details will…
The Swiss Federal Council has discussed the situation in eastern Ukraine at its meeting of 23 February 2022. It condemns Russia’s recognition of the two non-government-controlled territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as independent states as a violation of international law. While the Swiss government has not decided on adopting any sanctions or measures yet, it has stated that it wishes to ensure that Switzerland will not be used as a platform to circumvent…
On 21 December 2021, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) issued its judgment in Bank Melli Iran (C-124/20), which we have previously written about here. The judgment relates to the application of the EU Blocking Regulation (Regulation (EC) No 2271/96). The Blocking Regulation prohibits EU businesses from complying with certain extraterritorial US sanctions targeting Iran and Cuba. In many Member States, breaches of the Blocking Regulation can expose you to criminal penalties, albeit…