On October 30, 2024, the US Government imposed sanctions on hundreds of entities and individuals across the globe, primarily in response to Russia’s continued war in Ukraine, and amended US export controls related to Russia and Belarus. Below, we describe the key actions taken by the US Departments of the Treasury, State, and Commerce. 1. OFAC Actions With the aim of disrupting global sanctions evasion networks and domestic suppliers to Russia’s military-industrial base, the US…
On August 9, 2024, the US, EU, UK and Canada released a joint statement announcing new sanctions against Belarus, referring to the fourth anniversary of fraudulent presidential elections in Belarus that resulted in Alexander Lukashenko remaining in power. These authorities cited Belarus’s support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and ongoing human rights abuses in Belarus as the motivations for the latest round of sanctions. Members of our global sanctions team in the US,…
On 29 June 2024, the EU adopted a new Belarus sanctions package by amending Council Regulation (EU) 765/2006 (the “EU Belarus Sanctions“), effective from 1 July 2024. The amending regulation can be found here. The new package increases the alignment of the EU Belarus Sanctions with the EU’s sanctions against Russia (including those contained in Regulation (EU) 833/2014 (the “EU Russia Sanctions“), as recently updated), in order to address the risk of circumvention. The new…
In addition to the new EU measures, on Thursday 8th June the UK announced additional sanctions against Belarus, which came into force on Friday 9th June. The press release announcing the restrictions is available here, and the amending legislation is here. The new restrictions are intended to restrict sources of revenue to Belarus, combat sanctions circumvention, and reduce the ability of Belarusian media organisations to spread propaganda in the UK. The key measures include: Many…