While the Biden and Trump administrations both frequently imposed financial sanctions and export controls on China, the Biden administration has made greater use of two key tools: the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List and the Commerce Department’s Entity List. That's according to a new report by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).

The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Oct. 23 removed Ukrainian citizen Olena Yurevna Semenova from its Specially Designated Nationals List. Semenova was designated in 2015 as part of an effort to counter Russia-related sanctions evasion. The agency didn’t provide more information, and a Treasury Department spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.

An updated maritime industry advisory issued this week by the group of countries implementing the price cap on Russian oil includes new compliance recommendations, including ways to improve due diligence around tanker sales and tips to avoid deals with sanctioned counterparties.

Switzerland on Oct. 17 adopted most of the measures outlined in the EU's 14th sanctions package on Russia (see 2406240024), including expanded export controls, bans on the use of specialized financial messaging services, sanctions on vessels that are part of Russia's "dark fleet," and more.

The U.K. on Oct. 17 added Russian energy company Rasgazdobycha JSC to its Russia sanctions regime, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced. OFSI added the company for supporting the Russian government by conducting business in an area of strategic significance, namely, the energy sector.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Oct. 17 removed sanctions from Atlas Doviz Ticaret A.S., a Turkish firm it originally sanctioned in 2019 for being used to provide foreign currency exchange services to Iran’s Ansar Bank and its currency exchange arm. OFAC didn’t release more information.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned three entities and one person it said are involved in the development and production of Russia’s Garpiya series long-range attack drones, which Moscow uses in its war against Ukraine.

The U.S. this week sanctioned 18 companies, people and ships that it said have ties to a network run by Sa’id al-Jamal, an Iran-backed financial facilitator for the Yemen-based Houthis. The designations target captains of vessels transporting oil on behalf of the network that also benefits the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force, including Iranian national Ali Barkhordar and Pakistani national Wahid Ullah Durrani. Other destinations target companies and people managing those ships, including Marshall Islands-registered Changtai Shipping Ltd., United Arab Emirates-based Indo Gulf Ship Management LLC and boats sailing with the flags of Panama, the Cook Islands, Barbados and Palau.

The U.S. and 10 other countries are creating a new Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team to report on North Korea sanctions violations and evasion after Russia earlier this year vetoed a U.N. Security Council proposal that would have extended the “panel of experts” that had been monitoring U.N. sanctions against North Korea.

The U.S. this week sanctioned people and companies involved in a sanctions evasion network for the terror group Hezbollah and others that help produce and transport Captagon, an addictive amphetamine, to help fund the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.