On October 31, 2017, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) amended and reissued Directive 4 of the Ukraine/Russia-related sectoral sanctions (“Directive 4”), which targets the Russian energy sector, and updated its guidance regarding the implementation of Ukraine/Russia-related sanctions. OFAC’s amendment and reissuance of Directive 4 was expected pursuant to Section 223(d) of Title II of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (“CAATSA” see our previous blog post on CAATSA here). Also under CAATSA, Directive 1 and Directive 2 were amended and reissued on September 29, 2017 (see our previous blog post here). OFAC originally published Directive 4 in September of 2014, pursuant to Executive Order 13662. In conjunction with OFAC’s guidance, the US Department of State (“State Department”) also published guidance regarding CAATSA Sections 225 and 232.
On October 27, 2017, the US State Department issued guidance regarding Section 231 of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (“CAATSA”; see our previous blog post on the CAATSA here). This provision requires that the President impose retaliatory sanctions on any individual or entity, regardless of nationality, that knowingly engages in a “significant transaction” with a person that is determined to be part of, or operates for or on behalf of, the defense or intelligence sectors of the Government of the Russian Federation. The State Department will not begin imposing retaliatory sanctions under Section 231 until January 29, 2018, but this guidance provides important information for US and non-US companies that do business in Russia with the entities targeted by entities.
On September 29, 2017, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) amended and reissued Directive 1 and Directive 2 implementing US sectoral sanctions targeting Russia pursuant to the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (“CAATSA”). The maturity of prohibited “new debt” under Directive 1 will be reduced to 14 days (from 30 days) and the maturity of prohibited “new debt” under Directive 2 will be reduced to 60 days (from 90 days).
Following the US President’s signing into law of the “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act” (“CAATSA”) (as discussed in our blog post here), the European Commission has released an official statement in response. In the statement, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker notes that “a significant proportion of the intended sanctions against Russia have been dropped”, and welcomes the fact that “US Congress has now also committed to only apply sanctions after the country’s allies are consulted.”…