The Biden administration is considering lifting some oil sanctions against Venezuela to help decrease oil prices that have risen after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported March 6. U.S. officials met with Venezuelan officials in Caracas this past weekend to discuss allowing Venezuelan oil back into the open market, the report said. Under the proposal, the U.S. would ease its sanctions against Venezuela for a “limited period,” which would redirect Venezuelan oil exports out of an "opaque China-bound export network and back to Gulf Coast refiners that process the heavy crude Venezuela produces,” according to the report. The proposal would also help to isolate Russia from Venezuela, its closest South American ally. The White House didn’t comment.
President Joe Biden extended national emergencies that authorize certain sanctions against Iran and Venezuela, the White House said March 3. Both emergencies were extended for one year from March 15, 2022, and March 8, 2022, respectively.
The U.N. Security Council on March 3 removed two entries from its ISIL (Da’esh) and al‑Qaida sanctions list and removed seven entries from its general sanctions list. The entries include Iraqi, Jordanian and Yemeni nationals.
Seven non-EU nations imposed sanctions measures adopted by the EU over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the European Council said March 3. The countries are North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway imposed the EU's host of most-recent sanctions on Russia. Except for Liechtenstein, the same countries implemented the EU's Feb. 24 sanctions decision on Belarus, which extended the restrictions for another year and amended the sanctions entries for many of the listed individuals.
The G-7 countries and the EU said they plan to impose more sanctions against Russia and Belarus as long as Russia continues its military invasion of Ukraine. Although several “far-reaching economic and financial sanctions” have already been imposed, “further severe sanctions” are on the way, the foreign ministers of the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the EU said in a March 4 statement. The leaders also stressed to the Russian and Belarusian people that the sanctions are a “consequence” of the actions of their government. “President [Vladimir] Putin, and his government and supporters, and the [Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko] regime, bear full responsibility for the economic and social consequences of these sanctions,” the statement said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions on Hezbollah financiers in Ghana. OFAC said in a March 4 press release that it is designating Ali Saade and Ibrahim Taher. All property and interests in property of Saade and Taher, and of any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly 50 percent or more by them that are in the U.S. or in the possession or control of U.S. persons, must be blocked and reported to OFAC.
The State Department released the details of its "sweeping actions" against Russian defense enterprises. The March 3 announcement lists 22 Russian defense-related entities "critical to Russia’s war effort." The blocked entities produce a wide variety of Russian military equipment, from drones, to vehicles, to electronic warfare components. OFAC will add them to the Specially Designated Nationals list. All property and interests in property of the entities in the U.S. or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked. In addition, the announcement contained details about sanctions on Russian elites following an announcement by the White House (see 2203030073). OFAC will add the listed individuals and companies to the SDN list.
Federal prosecutor Andrew Adams will lead Task Force KleptoCapture, the interagency group set up to enforce U.S. sanctions against Russia (see 2203020044), Attorney General Merrick Garland announced March 3. Speaking to the ABA Institute on White Collar Crime, Garland also discussed steps DOJ is taking to enforce its recent wave of sanctions measures. Adams is co-chief of the Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit for the Office of U.S. Attorney, Southern District of New York, per his LinkedIn profile. Adams has led various asset forfeiture and organized crime cases, touched off by his leadership of a team in 2015 that recovered a Stradivarius violin stolen in 1980, Reuters reported. He also led the prosecution of alleged Russian crime syndicate leader Razhden Shulaya.
The U.K. added two more oligarchs to its Russia sanctions regime following their country's invasion of Ukraine, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said in a March 3 notice. Alisher Usmanov and Igor Shuvalov, listed as having close ties to the Kremlin and "significant interests" in the U.K., were added to the sanctions list.
President Joe Biden extended a national emergency that authorizes certain sanctions against the Zimbabwean government, the White House said March 3. The emergency was extended for one year to March 6, 2023.