Sanctions and Export Control | UK Regulatory Outlook October 2022

UK sanctions in response to Putin's illegal annexation of Ukrainian regions

The Foreign Secretary announced a package of 92 sanctions in response to the Russian regime imposing sham referendums in four regions of Ukraine.

The sanctions include individuals who were deployed to each of the temporarily controlled regions, Goznak, a security documents company, along with a further four oligarchs for supporting or obtaining benefit from the Russian government and operating in sectors of strategic significance.

Plans to adopt further sanctions include:

• export bans on IT consultancy, architectural, engineering, advertising, transactional legal advisory, and auditing services;
• export bans on almost 700 goods from the UK to Russia, including hundreds of goods that are critical for production in Russia's manufacturing sector; and
• suspension of the process by which actions taken to manage the orderly failure of Russian banks are recognised under UK law, where the bank is a sanctioned entity.

The full UK sanctions list can be viewed here.

European Council adopts eighth package of sanctions against Russia

The European Council has adopted an eighth package of sanctions which introduces new EU import bans worth  €7 billion. The Commission has said that the package is in response to Russia's illegal war and continued escalation against Ukraine.

The package includes:

• implementation of the G7 oil price cap;
• additional listings of individuals and entities, especially those working in the defence sector;
• new export restrictions banning the export of coal, specific electronic components, technical items used in the aviation sector, and certain chemicals;
• new import restrictions, including a ban on the import of Russian finished and semi-finished steel products, machinery and appliances, plastics, vehicles, textiles, footwear, leather, ceramics, certain chemical products, and non-gold jewellery: and
• widening of the scope of services that can no longer be provided to the Russian government or legal persons established in Russian to include IT consultancy, legal advisory, architecture and engineering services.

Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 Commencement Regulations

Please see Bribery, fraud and anti-money laundering.