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…
On April 29, 2024, the European Union (“EU”) adopted the Directive (EU) 2024/1226 on the definition of criminal offenses and penalties for the violation of Union restrictive measures and amending Directive (EU) 2018/1673 (“Directive”). Member States will have until April 30, 2025 to transpose it into national legislation. The Directive defines criminal offenses and penalties and establishes minimum rules concerning the prosecution of violations or circumvention of EU sanctions in Member States and directs Member…
The leader of Russia’s political opposition, Alexei Navalny, died in a Siberian prison on February 16, just over a week before the two-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Both Navalny’s death and the anniversary of the invasion were cited as the motivations behind the latest rounds of sanctions against Russia. Members of our global sanctions team in our offices in the US, UK, Sweden, Australia, and Canada summarize the latest…