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…
On 18 December 2023, the EU published its 12th package of sanctions targeting Russia via Regulation (EU) 2023/2878 and Regulation (EU) 2023/2875, amending Regulation (EU) 833/2014 and Regulation (EU) 269/2014, respectively (collectively, “12th EU Russia Sanctions Package”). The amendments to Regulation (EU) 269/2014 (related to Designated Persons (“DPs”)) are effective immediately while the amendments to Regulation (EU) 833/2014 become effective today, 19 December 2023. These amendments have a material impact on all businesses with a…
On 3rd of June 2022, the Council decided to impose a sixth package of economic and individual sanctions targeting both Russia and Belarus. Relevant legislation implementing the sixth package of sanctions can be found here. The new sanctions ban the import of Russian oil into the EU, they cut off more of the key Russian banks from the international payment system SWIFT, they sanction additional parties and they ban more disinformation actors actively contributing to…