Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2666 actions· ✨ 90 recent

On 23 October 2025, the Council of the European Union adopted the 19th package of restrictive measures against Russia, anchored by Council Regulation (EU) 2025/2033 amending Regulation 833/2014 (sectoral sanctions), Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2035 amending Regulation 269/2014 (asset-freeze listings — 22 individuals + 42 entities, total 69 listings), and Council Regulation (EU) 2025/2041 (parallel Belarus measures). The package closes the Russian-LNG import loophole left open by the 18th package and establishes the architectural template for crypto-asset sanctions. Headline measures: (i) full prohibition on imports of Russian-origin LNG into the EU — short-term contracts banned six months from entry into force (effective 25 April 2026), long-term contracts (> 1 year, executed before 17 June 2025) phased out by 1 January 2027; (ii) full transaction ban on Rosneft and Gazprom Neft (tightening prior partial measures); (iii) five additional Russian banks added to Annex XIV transaction ban (Alfa-Bank, MTS Bank among them; effective 12 November 2025); (iv) full transaction bans on the Mir card payment system and the Faster Payments System (SBP), effective 25 January 2026; (v) first-ever EU sanctions on a stablecoin — the rouble-backed A7A5 (issuer + developer designated) — and a Paraguay-based cryptocurrency exchange used as a circumvention rail; (vi) prohibition on EU operators contracting with 11 listed Russian Special Economic Zones (Annex LII), with mandatory divestment from Alabuga (Tatarstan) and Technopolis Moscow effective 25 January 2026 — no five-year wind-down available; (vii) 45 entities added to Annex IV military end-user list (28 Russian + 17 third-country: 12 Chinese/Hong Kong, 3 Indian, 2 Thai); (viii) new export restrictions on electronic components, microelectronics, acyclic hydrocarbons, pneumatic rubber tires and propellant chemicals (~EUR 155 m of EU 2024 exports); (ix) prohibition on supply of AI, HPC, and quantum-computing services to Russian persons (effective 25 November 2025); (x) tourism-services ban (1 January 2026 wind-down); (xi) 117 additional shadow-fleet vessels listed (cumulative 557, exceeding the 18th package's 444); (xii) four Belarus + Kazakhstan banks listed for SPFS use (effective 2 December 2025); (xiii) binding ownership/control definitions added to Reg. 269/2014 (50 % proprietary-rights threshold + eight-criterion control test). Entry into force on 24 October 2025 (day following publication in OJ L_202502033), except for measures with explicit deferred application dates.

On 23 October 2025, the Council of the European Union adopted Council Regulation (EU) 2025/2041 (amending Regulation (EC) No 765/2006) and Council Decision (CFSP) 2025/2040 (amending Decision 2012/642/CFSP), widening the EU's Belarus restrictive-measures regime in lockstep with the 19th Russia sanctions package adopted the same day. The package widens the export ban to industrial goods (salts, ores, rubber articles, tyres, millstones, construction materials, electronic components, rangefinders, propellant chemicals, metals/oxides/alloys), extends the import ban to all acyclic hydrocarbons, introduces a new prior-licensing requirement for services supplied to Belarus, its government, or public bodies, and mirrors the Russia regime's space, AI, and high-performance/ quantum-computing service restrictions. A companion instrument, Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2039, adds 5 new asset-freeze listings (2 individuals + 3 entities, including JSC Holography Industry, Horizont Holding, and ICT Horizont). Entered into force 24 October 2025.

Switzerland's Federal Council amended the Ordinance on measures related to the situation in Ukraine (SR 946.231.176.72) to align with the remainder of the EU's tenth sanctions package, effective 8pm on 29 March 2023. The amendment extends the existing Russia import ban to additional petroleum products (including petroleum jelly and petroleum coke), bitumen/asphalt, bituminous mastics, carbon and synthetic rubber, adds further export controls and designations linked to drone transfers to Russia, and tightens reporting obligations in the financial sector.

On 25 February 2023, one year into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Council of the European Union adopted Council Regulation (EU) 2023/427, the 10th package of sanctions, amending Regulation (EU) 833/2014. It entered into force on publication the following day (26 February 2023). The package bans imports of asphalt and synthetic rubber from Russia (with a temporary transitional import quota for rubber products running to 30 June 2024), expands the export ban on dual-use and advanced-technology goods, suspends further Russian media broadcasting licences in the EU, and designates 87 individuals and 34 entities — including Iranian persons and entities involved in drone manufacture and supply, and 96 entities tied to Russia's defence-industrial base — to the EU asset-freeze/travel-ban list.

The Council of the EU adopted Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/878 of 3 June 2022, implementing Regulation (EU) No 269/2014 concerning restrictive measures in respect of actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. The regulation adds 65 individuals and 18 legal entities to Annex I, subjecting them to an EU-wide asset freeze and a prohibition on EU persons or entities making funds or economic resources available to them. The listed entities span Russia's defense-industrial base, military-linked vehicle and tyre manufacturing, and financial-market infrastructure.

On 8 April 2022 the Council of the European Union adopted Regulation (EU) 2022/576, further amending Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 (the fifth package of measures against Russia). It bans imports of Russian coal and other solid fossil fuels, wood, cement, rubber, fertilisers, high-end seafood and spirits; bans exports to Russia of jet fuel, quantum computers, advanced semiconductors, high-end electronics and sensitive machinery; bars Russian and Belarusian road-freight operators from EU territory; and closes EU ports to Russian-flagged vessels. It entered into force on 9 April 2022, the day after publication in the Official Journal (OJ L 111).

On 16 March 2022 the Swiss Federal Council adopted a total revision of the Ordinance on Measures against Belarus (SR 946.231.116.9), aligning Switzerland's autonomous sanctions with the EU's Belarus regime. It bans imports of Belarusian petroleum products, potassium chloride ("potash"), wood, iron and steel, and cement and rubber products; bans exports of goods used to manufacture or process tobacco products, weapons, surveillance equipment, and goods usable for Belarus's military or security development; and imposes financial sanctions including a ban on public financing for trade with or investment in Belarus, restrictions on securities/loans/ deposits, a prohibition on transactions with the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus, and exclusion of listed Belarusian banks from SWIFT. The ordinance entered into force on the day it was adopted.

On 2 March 2022 the Council of the European Union adopted Regulation (EU) 2022/355, amending Regulation (EC) No 765/2006 concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in Belarus. It bans importing, purchasing or transporting products originating in or exported from Belarus in wood (Annex X), cement (Annex XI), iron and steel (Annex XII) and rubber (Annex XIII), and extends restrictions to potassium chloride ("potash"), tobacco and mineral products, plus a ban on exporting dual-use goods, machinery (Annex XIV) and goods usable for Belarus's military or security development. The measure responds to Belarus's active facilitation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It entered into force the day after publication in the Official Journal (OJ L 67, 2 March 2022), i.e. 3 March 2022, with a wind-down period to 4 June 2022 for pre-existing contracts.