The U.K. added 11 Russians to its sanctions regime related to cyberattacks against the country. In a Sept. 7 notice, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation imposed restrictions against the individuals for contributing to ransomware attacks that threaten the U.K. and "cause economic loss to, or prejudice the commercial interests of, those companies affected by the activity."
The EU General Court on Sept. 6 upheld the European Council's sanctions listing of Belarusian businessman Mikail Gutseriev, finding that the European Council correctly interpreted the listing criteria to include nonfinancial types of support for the Belarus regime. Gutseriev, sanctioned in 2021, argued that the listing criteria under the Belarus sanctions regime should include only financial support, given its language saying parties shall be listed due to their "benefit from or support for" the Belarus government.
The U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority released a review of the country's sanctions systems on Sept. 6, finding firms that carried out risk exposure assessment ahead of Russia's invasion used proper practices. The review also found many firms needing better governance and oversight, and said certain companies were "too reliant on third-party" sanctions compliance tools and didn't align their practices with U.K. sanctions rules. The review spotted various backlogs regarding sanctions screening alerts and said some firms didn't have "adequate internal expertise," the report said.
An EU report on the bloc's 2022 trade defense activities shows the EU "robustly" applied legislation to ensure its trade measures were effective, the European Commission said. By the end of 2022, around 177 trade measures were in place, almost a fifth of them circumvention measures and most of them on goods from China, Russia, India, South Korea and the U.S. The bloc opened two anti-circumvention proceedings in 2022 and suspended all import duties and safeguard measures on Ukrainian goods following Russia's invasion, the commission noted.
Switzerland issued an updated sanctions guidance Sept. 1. The updated guidance "contains a general section on the sanction measures applicable in Switzerland" in addition to specific information about Ukraine, the country said.
The U.K. dropped five entries from its Mali sanctions regime in a Sept. 1 notice. The Office of Financial Sanctions removed Ahmed Ag Albachar, Houka Houka Ag Alhousseini, Mahri Sidi Amar Ben Daha, Mohamed Ben Ahmed Mahri and Mohamed Ould Mataly, all of whom are members of Mali's political class.
Ukraine's National Agency on Corruption Prevention released a database that tracks the circulation of art objects bought or sold by sanctioned Russian individuals, the agency announced. The database has information on over 300 pieces of art estimated at $2 billion and allows users to report information pertaining to the art pieces.
The U.K.’s Export Control Joint Unit on Aug. 30 updated its consolidated list of “strategic military and dual-use items” that require export licenses. The updates revise technical notes in “ML13d of the military list and annex II of human rights list,” the agency said.
Germany arrested a businessman for illegally exporting about $780,000 in electronics components to a company in Russia, Germany's federal prosecutor’s office announced Aug. 29. Prosecutors said the man shipped the products between January 2020 and March 2023, and they were sent to Russian producers of “military hardware and accessory parts,” including makers of the ‘Orlan-10’ drone “currently used by Russian forces in Ukraine.”
The U.K.'s Department for International Trade expanded antidumping and countervailing duties on hot-rolled flat products of iron, non-alloy or other alloy steel from China for another five years. In a pair of notices, the DIT said the duties will now expire April 7, 2027. The countervailing duties range from 4.6% to 35.9%, including a 35.9% rate for all other exporters not given an individual rate. The antidumping duties range from zero to 31.3%.