Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 3 June 2022 the Council of the European Union adopted Regulation (EU) 2022/879, the sixth package of sanctions against Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, further amending Regulation (EU) No 833/2014. It bans the seaborne import of Russian crude oil and refined petroleum products, covering roughly two-thirds of EU oil imports from Russia at adoption (pipeline deliveries via Druzhba were temporarily exempted). It removes Sberbank, Credit Bank of Moscow and Russian Agricultural Bank from SWIFT (Annex XIV), bans EU operators from providing accounting, auditing, bookkeeping, tax consulting, business/management consulting and public-relations services to persons in Russia (new Article 5n), and adds three more Russian broadcasters to the EU broadcasting-suspension list (Annex XV). It entered into force on 4 June 2022, the day after publication in the Official Journal.

On 1 March 2022, OFAC published an interim final rule adding the Russian Harmful Foreign Activities Sanctions Regulations (RuHSR) at 31 CFR Part 587, codifying into Title 31 of the Code of Federal Regulations all prohibitions previously imposed by Executive Order 14024 of 15 April 2021. The regulations were issued in abbreviated form to provide immediate public guidance, with OFAC indicating an intent to supplement them with additional definitions, general licenses, and interpretive guidance. All transactions prohibited under EO 14024 — including prior sectoral determinations and directives targeting Russia's financial services sector, sovereign debt markets, and key state institutions — are formally prohibited under Part 587, giving domestic courts and compliance teams a stable regulatory anchor.

Between 22 and 28 February 2022 — coinciding with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine — OFAC issued a Financial Services Sectoral Determination and four directives under Executive Order 14024 of April 15, 2021. Together they authorise designation of any person operating in Russia's financial sector, prohibit US persons from trading Russian sovereign debt, bar US banks from maintaining correspondent accounts for designated Russian financial institutions (Sberbank, Alfa-Bank and others), prohibit new investment in certain Russia-related entities, and block all transactions involving the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund, and the Ministry of Finance — effectively freezing approximately USD 640 billion in Russian sovereign reserves held in Western financial systems. The package was formally published in the Federal Register on 31 May 2022.