On December 2, 2021, the EU, UK, US, and Canada all imposed additional coordinated sanctions on Belarus as a punitive action against the government led by President Alexander Lukashenko, which has been accused of human rights violations and creating a migrant crisis at Belarusian borders. As further described below, the sanctions included the designation of a number of parties (individuals and entities), whilst certain individuals will also be subject to travel bans preventing them entering…
On 1 November 2021, the UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (“OFSI”) published an updated Charity Sector Guidance and a blog post in response to Afghanistan’s Taliban takeover in August. A copy of the Guidance is available here. The Afghanistan (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 put in place sanctions measures to ensure the UK continues to meet its obligations under the United Nations sanctions regime. While the UK has enforced financial sanctions relating to Afghanistan since…
On 9 September the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (“PRA”) published a letter to bank CEOs with the purpose of reiterating expectations of firms when undertaking trade finance activities. The Dear CEO letter addressed both conduct and prudential issues where the regulators consider that improvements are required in firms’ controls. The regulators stressed that “firms need to demonstrate that they have taken a risk sensitive approach to their control environment that…
On 20 August 2021, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office updated the UK Chemical Weapons financial sanctions regime to include seven Russian nationals linked to the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader. Listed below, the individuals are subject to an freezing of assets and economic resources. Alexey Alexandrov;Vladimir Panyaev;Ivan Vladimirovich Osipov;Vladimir Mikhailovich Bogdanov;Kirill Vasilyev;Stanislav Valentinovich Makshakov;Alexei Semenovich Sedov.