2022 was a year defined and shaped by sanctions on an unprecedented scale. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the most comprehensive sanctions were imposed against a major power since the end of the Second World War, with the US, European Union (EU), and others coordinating their actions in new ways.
On September 30, 2022, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) published its Sanctions Compliance Guidance for Instant Payment Systems in conjunction with a settlement agreement between the agency and Tango Card, Inc. The guidance […]
On September 30, 2022, President Vladimir Putin announced the attempted illegal annexation of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia. In the wake of the announcement, the Council of the EU has announced the adoption of an eighth […]
On 15 August 2022, Australia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs announced plans to designate gold as an “import sanctioned good” for Russia under sub-regulation 4A(3) of the Autonomous Sanctions Regulations 2011. The proposed amendment would prohibit the import of gold alongside […]
On August 8, 2022, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash, a virtual currency mixer, for enabling cybercriminals to launder USD 7 billion in crypto since 2019. According to OFAC’s press release, […]
The UN’s Special Rapporteur, Alena Douhan, has issued a stark warning on the consequences of over-compliance with sanctions. Douhan notes resorting to extreme measures to reduce legal, business, and regulatory risk has become tempting as governments issue more unilateral sanctions. […]
The war in Ukraine has triggered global sanctions and embargoes on an unprecedented scale. With Western countries increasingly keen to avoid direct military confrontations, the ability to impact the economies of ‘aggressors’ has become an important diplomatic tool. The growing […]
China and Russia have vetoed a US-led UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution that proposed tougher sanctions on North Korea after the country’s latest ballistic missile tests. This marked the first split in the Council since measures were introduced against Pyongyang […]
The US Treasury has sanctioned two Russian banks, one individual, and a trading company for working with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs. The new sanctions follow the launch of […]
The US Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) is expanding its sanctions regime to cover additional alleged North Korean wallets, following the hack of blockchain game Axie Infinity’s Ronin bridge, which saw the theft of around $600m in cryptocurrency. OFAC […]
Years of economic and political instability have resulted in tighter sanctions being placed on Venezuela by most of the major countries that issue sanctions. A decades-long over-reliance on oil reserves and widespread political corruption are but two long-standing contributors to […]
This report takes a look at the evolution of the current international sanctions environment, and the key issues in sanctions today: the key regimes, underlying geopolitical risks, sanctions evasion, and the development of national policy in some of the key regimes, national perspectives, and thematic trends.
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