Japan recently announced sanctions and export restrictions on people and companies for aiding Russian war efforts against Ukraine, including parties in China, India, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, according to an unofficial translation of a notice from Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
The Biden administration hopes that new export controls and sanctions against Russia's war machine suppliers, including China, will spur Beijing to rethink its support for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, a State Department official said June 26.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on June 26 renewed a general license that authorizes certain transactions related to crude oil originating from the Sakhalin-2 project, an oil and gas development business based in Russia (see 2309140031 and 2211230047). General License 55B, which replaces 55A, authorizes those transactions “provided that the Sakhalin-2 byproduct is solely for importation into Japan.” The license was scheduled to expire June 28, 2024, but now expires 12:01 a.m. EDT June 28, 2025.
Canada this week sanctioned nine people and two entities involved in planning or executing the Hamas terror attacks against Israel on Oct. 7. The designations target financiers for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as well as two Hamas-linked financial exchange companies.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control removed more than 50 entries from its Specially Designated National List that were originally added for counter-narcotics reasons. The entries include people and companies based in Colombia and Mexico. The agency didn’t release more information.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned about 50 entities and people, including a “sprawling” shadow banking network, used by Iran’s military to access the international financial system. Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have used the network to process billions of dollars since 2020, OFAC said, and use various exchange houses and foreign “cover companies” to “disguise the revenue they generate abroad,” which they then use to buy and develop advanced weapons systems.
Canada recently imposed another round of sanctions to address gang violence in Haiti, targeting three Haitian gang leaders for human rights violations or for undermining peace in the country. The country sanctioned Luckson Elan, Gabriel Jean-Pierre and Ferdens Tilus. “Canada will not remain idle while criminal gangs in Haiti commit unspeakable violence, terrorize vulnerable populations with impunity and undermine efforts to restore law and order in the country,” said Mélanie Joly, Canada’s foreign affairs minister. The country has sanctioned a range of Haitian gang leaders and members of the Haitian elite in recent months for violence, corruption, drug trafficking and more (see 2301130019, 2212200016, 2212060008, 2211210026 and 2211040064).
The EU sanctioned six people for undermining "the stability and political transition of Sudan," the Council of the European Union announced June 24. The sanctions come amid fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces. The council sanctioned Abdulrahman Juma Barakallah, an RSF general commanding troops in West Darfur, along with the RSF's financial adviser and a "prominent tribal leader." Related to the SAF, the council sanctioned the director general of sanctioned company Defense Industry System, Sudanese Air Force Commander El Tahir Mohamed El Awad El Amin and former Sudanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Ahmed Karti Mohamed.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned 12 executives working for Kaspersky, the Russian cybersecurity software firm, for working in Russia’s technology sector. The designations target senior officials of AO Kaspersky Lab one day after the Commerce Department announced that it would be adding the lab, as well as Russia-based OOO Kaspersky Group and U.K.-based Kaspersky Labs Limited, to the Entity List (see 2406200032).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control urged a federal court late last month to dismiss the sole remaining claim in a lawsuit challenging the agency’s sanctioning of two former Afghan government officials for corruption.