On July 3, 2024, in Brussels, Croatia joined the customs agreement of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland regarding the application of uniform control measures for sanctions.
In January, the heads of the customs authorities of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia approved an agreement on common control measures in these countries, and on 9 May this year, Poland and Finland joined this agreement.
“Lithuania has consistently sought to reduce the risk of circumventing sanctions against Russia and Belarus in all EU countries. We are pleased that Latvia, Estonia, Poland, and Finland have joined our initiative, and now Croatia will begin implementing this agreement,” said Darius Žvironas, Director General of the Customs Department of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania.
The customs authorities of the signatory countries have to strengthen control over goods subject to export bans and restrictions, and apply uniform measures such as the requirement to submit a document or information from the manufacturer of exported or re-exported goods to Customs.
Customs will also require other documents denying the possibility of importing goods into Russia or ways to circumvent sanctions.
The Norwegian government has published a statement supporting the EU’s 14th package of sanctions against Russia.
“Russia is not investing in its own future, but is staking everything on a victory on the battlefield. This is having a major impact on Norwegian and European security,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide.
The EU’s latest package of sanctions targets certain sectors of the Russian economy, including energy, finance, and trade. It also includes restrictions on 116 additional individuals and entities, and it significantly strengthens financial sanctions by banning EU banks from using the SPFS messaging system, which is Russia’s equivalent to SWIFT.
Additionally, Norway supports the EU legislation that allows extraordinary revenues generated from immobilised assets of the Central Bank of Russia to be used for supporting Ukraine.
The Central Bank of Norway has no assets, but it is important to support measures introduced by allies that can help Ukraine defend itself, the Norwegian government noted.
A military parade in the capital of Belarus has became the presentation of copies of Iranian military drones.
At the military parade, the audience saw several drones that were transported on Chinese-made pickups. The drones were labeled “Geranium-2” (Герань-2 – Rus.) and “Nomad” (Кочевник – Rus.). Apparently, “Nomad” is the label especially for Belarusian defense department.
Photo: youtube.com/@VoentvBY
“Geran-2” is a Russian military drone, which is made in the likeness of the Iranian drone Shahed 136.
Russia uses Geranium-2 on the territory of Ukraine.
Photo: youtube.com/@VoentvBY
During the parade in Minsk, it was stated that the drone is capable of carrying a warhead weighing up to 52 kilograms, reaching speeds of up to 180 kilometers per hour, and covering distances of up to two thousand kilometers.
In 2022 the EU sanctioned Iranian company Shahed Aviation Industries that produce Shahed drones.
Kirill Gordei, a citizen of Belarus and a permanent resident of the USA, has been accused of smuggling scientific equipment from the US into Russia without permission.
The US Department of Justice claims that Kirill is the president of Apelsin Logistics, a freight forwarder based in Hallandale Beach, Florida, which also has offices in Russia. Evidence on the website HH.Ru shows that the company also has offices in New York and St Petersburg (Russia).
According to the department’s statement, in August 2023, Gordei allegedly claimed that he had shipped an Orbitrap Exploris GC 240 Mass Spectrometer – an item that provides high data quality and versatility for accelerating scientific discovery in academic and industrial research and government laboratories – to Uzbekistan, when in fact it was destined for Russia. Such a supply required a license from the Bureau of Industry and Security for export to Russia, but Gordei did not apply for it.
“By allegedly smuggling sensitive technology to Russia, Mr. Gordei undermined the critical framework established to protect national security,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy for the District of Massachusetts.
If convicted, Gordey faces a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment for the conspiracy charge, up to 20 years’ prison, five years supervised release, and a $250,000 fine, for the illegal export charge; and up to ten years’ imprisonment, three years supervised release and $25,00, fine for smuggling goods from the US.
A pan-European commercial bank, UniCredit S.p.A (“UniCredit” or “UCI”) has claimed that it has made an application to the General Court of the European Union to obtain definitive legal clarification of the obligations set by the European Central Bank’s requirements to further reduce the risks associated with UniCredit’s activities in Russia, carried out by subsidiaries including UniCredit Bank Russia.
According to UniCredit, the bank wants clarity about obligations it must abide by reducing its presence in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022.
“The unprecedented circumstances, the complexities inherent in the geo-political and economic scenario and the lack of a harmonized regulatory framework applicable to it and the potential for serious unintended consequences of implementing the decision that would impact not only the Russian subsidiaries but UniCredit S.p.A., compel the Board of Directors of UniCredit to seek for clarity,” the bank informed.
UniCredit S.P.A. noted that it had reduced business in Russia, but financial results approved an increase in its profit.
According to the results of the first quarter of 2024, UniCredt Bank Russia made a profit of 20.105 billion rubles (approximately 20 million euros). In 2023, this result was lower – only 15.538 billion rubles.
JetBrains, an international company that develops interfaces for programming in Java, Kotlin, C#, F#, C++, Ruby, Python, PHP, and JavaScript, no longer allows Russian users to download one of its most popular products, IntelliJ IDEA.
Users from Russia have tried to download the app in real time, but they received a message saying “Unavailable for legal reasons. We are sorry, but we are currently unable to provide you with our products or services due to export control regulations”.
JetBrains was founded in 2000 by three Russian developers, Sergei Dmitriev, Valentin Kipyatkov, and Eugene Belyaev, initially known as IntelliJ Software.
In 2022, the company began to withdraw from Russia and sold its office in St. Petersburg. Today, JetBrains has over 11 million users who use its tools.
Severnaya Zvezda LLC, engaged in the project for a coking coal processing plant, revealed in the arbitration court the disappointing consequences of sanctions imposed by the US.
Severnaya Zvezda has been developing the Syradasay coal deposit in the Taimyr Peninsula for several years. The resource of the field is estimated at 5 billion tons and investments in the project amount to 45–50 billion rubles.
The investment portal for the Arctic zone of Russia says that the project to build a concentrating plant on the Syradasy deposit is part of the strategy for socio-economic development in the Arctic and plans to increase cargo flow along the Northern Sea Route up to 80 million tons per year.
Recently, the Moscow Arbitration Court finished considering a case where Severnaya Zvezd appeared as a defendant.
Severnaya Zvezda cannot conclude foreign trade contracts – that is, due to the imposition of sanctions, the company has been deprived of the ability to sell products from the enrichment plant. Purchase (sale) of coking coal concentrate for production and sale turned out to be impossible, both in hostile jurisdictions and friendly jurisdictions, due to risk of secondary sanctions.
Severnaya Zvezda has also been deprived the opportunity to export products from its production site…
In fact, the only way for Severnaya Zvezda LLC to export its products is by transporting them by sea vessels along the Northern Sea Route. However… swimming in the waters of the Northern Sea Route is carried out only with the permission of the Federal State Budgetary Institution Glavsevmorput. In order to obtain the specified permit, it is necessary that the vessel has the appropriate ice class…
However, due to the imposed sanctions, Severnaya Zvezda LLC cannot purchase such vessels abroad. Among other things, Severnaya Zvezda LLC is also deprived of the opportunity to charter (hire) vessels of a suitable ice class suitable for transporting coal.
The Council of the European Union has announced new sanctions on Belarus in support of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. These new restrictive measures affect some sectors of Belarus’ economy.
Firstly, the EU Council extended the ban on exports of dual-use goods and advanced technologies to Belarus. Additionally, restrictions were imposed on the export of luxury goods, maritime navigation goods, and technologies to the country.
Another hit was laid on certain services to Belarus such as accounting services, auditing services, architectural and engineering services advertising, market research and public opinion polling services. All of them are prohibited now.
Another blow was dealt to certain services in Belarus, such as accounting, auditing, architectural, engineering, advertising, market research, and public opinion poll services. These are now prohibited. In addition, the EU prohibits direct or indirect imports, purchases, or transfers of gold, diamonds, helium, coal, and mineral products, including crude oil, from Belarus.
The Council of the European Union has adopted today a 14th package of economic and individual restrictive measures on Russian and its allies.
The new sanctions include restrictions on 116 additional individuals and entities (see the full list here).
These include popular propagandists singers Yaroslav Dronov (stage name: Shaman) and Polina Gagarina.
EU has stated that it will ban reloading of Russian LNG services in EU territory to transfer operations to third countries.
In addition, EU has decided to prohibit the use of ‘System for Transfer of Financial Messages’ (SPFS), a specialized financial messaging service developed by the Central Bank of Russia to counteract restrictive measures. Entities operating outside of Russia will not be allowed to connect to SPFS or similar specialized financial services.
Among the sanctioned companies are Sovcomflot, Russia’s largest shipping company specializing in the transportation of liquified gas; the Volga-Dnepr Group and its subsidiaries; the Kadyrov Foundation and the Belarusian Republican Youth Union.
Last week, the U.S., through the Department of Commerce, issued a final determination pursuant to Executive Order prohibiting Kaspersky Lab and its affiliates, subsidiaries, and parent companies from providing anti-virus software, cybersecurity products, or services in the United States or to U.S.-based entities.
The second action was taken by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which designated twelve individuals who hold executive or senior leadership positions at Kaspersky.
What were the reasons for these actions? The U. S. Department of Defense decided that the products and services offered by Kaspersky Lab and its corporate group pose an unacceptable risk to the national security and safety of US citizens. Additionally, the Department of Commerce has designated Kaspersky Lab as a partner for its cooperation with the Russian military and intelligence agencies.
Presently, Kaspersky Lab is a global company that operates in over 200 countries and territories, with 34 offices located in more than 30 countries. It produces cybersecurity solutions and services.
Kaspersky Lab was founded in 1997 by Eugene Kaspersky, his wife, and partners. In 2023, the company demonstrated strong performance with an 11% growth in net sales bookings. The global non-audited revenue of Kaspersky in 2013 amounted to $721 million USD.
Eugene Kaspersky and the former president of Russia Dmitry Medvedev / Phoho: kremlin.ru
The following individuals from Kaspersky Lab have been added to the OFAC sanctions list:
Andrei Gennadyevich Tikhonov is a member of the boards of directors of Kaspersky Lab.
Andrei Gennadyevich Tikhonov / Photo: kaspersky.ru
Daniil Sergeyevich Borshchev is a member of the boards of directors of Kaspersky Lab, Kaspersky Group, and Kaspersky Limited.
Andrei Anatolyevich Efremov is a member of the boards of directors of Kaspersky Lab and Kaspersky Group and is also the company’s Chief Business Development Officer.
Igor Gennadyevich Chekunov is a member of the boards of directors of Kaspersky Lab and Kaspersky Group and is the company’s Chief Legal Officer.
Andrey Petrovich Dukhvalov is Kaspersky Lab’s Vice President and Director of Future Technologies.
Andrei Anatolyevich Suvorov is Kaspersky Lab’s Head of Kaspersky Operating System Business Unit.
Denis Vladimirovich Zenkin is the Kaspersky Lab’s Head of Corporate Communications.
Marina Mikhaylovna Alekseeva is Kaspersky Lab’s Chief Human Resources Officer.
Mikhail Yuryevich Gerber is Kaspersky Lab’s Executive Vice President of Consumer Business.
Anton Mikhaylovich Ivanov heads Kaspersky Lab’s research and development department as the company’s Chief Technology Officer.
Kirill Aleksandrovich Astrakhan is Kaspersky Lab’s Executive Vice President for Corporate Business.
Anna Vladimirovna Kulashova is Kaspersky Lab’s Managing Director for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
