Over the past week, Australia has made several additions to its autonomous sanctions measures targeting Russia. Of particular note: Australia has expanded the list of individuals and entities subject to the designated party sanctions (and travel bans). The additions to the list include:Individuals including Russian oligarchs, political and economic elites, and current or former members of the Russian government. The list also includes individuals identified as family members of oligarchs which the government indicated it…
Consistent with the Australian Foreign Minister’s announcement on 22 February 2022, the Prime Minister on 23 February 2022 announced that Australia is working on imposing additional sanctions measures on Russia that are aligned with those that the US and UK have announced. Key aspects highlighted by the Prime Minister for the new measures are: expansion of the individuals and entities subject to designated party sanctions (and travel bans);sanctions on the Russian State Development Bank, VEB,…
On 2 December 2021, the Australian Parliament passed the Autonomous Sanctions Amendment (Magnitsky-style and Other Thematic Sanctions) Act 2021 (Cth) (“Act”). The new laws are intended to modernise Australia’s autonomous sanctions regime by creating a framework to facilitate the establishment of a thematic sanctions regime to enable Australia to respond flexibly and swiftly to a range of situations of international concern. A key difference to the current sanctions regime is that the new laws will…
The Australian Government has removed the requirement for financial institutions to obtain a permit for financial transactions with Iran exceeding AUD 20,000. These were known as “financial countermeasures”. Previously, under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (Iran Countermeasures) Regulations 2014, Australian financial institutions needed a permit to provide certain designated services to Iranian persons and entities for transactions exceeding AUD 20,000. The removal of the financial countermeasures was effective 27 February 2016. The removal of…