Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2665 actions· ✨ 90 recent

On 12 January 2026 Switzerland's Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (WBF) amended Annexes 8, 14, 15b and 33 of the Ordinance on Measures in Connection with the Situation in Ukraine, with effect from 23:00 on 13 January 2026. The amendment adds 5 natural persons, 4 organisations (one Vietnam-based, three based in the UAE and Russia), and 41 vessels to the asset-freeze and port-access-prohibition annexes, and makes technical corrections to 7 existing entries. The measure is a routine incremental listing update continuing Switzerland's autonomous alignment with the EU's Russia sanctions regime, following the first EU 19th-package tranche adopted 12 December 2025 ([switzerland-19th-eu-sanctions-package-december-listings](2025-12-12-switzerland-19th-eu-sanctions-package-december-listings.md)) and preceding the substantive package completion of 25 February 2026 ([switzerland-19th-eu-sanctions-package-russia-belarus](2026-02-25-switzerland-19th-eu-sanctions-package-russia-belarus.md)).

The Council of the European Union adopted Regulation (EU) 2025/2618 on 18 December 2025, amending Regulation (EU) No 833/2014, to add 41 vessels to Annex XLII of the Russia sanctions regime. Of these, 36 vessels are designated for transporting Russian crude oil and petroleum products while engaging in irregular and high-risk shipping practices characteristic of the "shadow fleet," 5 vessels are designated for transporting stolen Ukrainian grain and cultural property, and 1 vessel (GT HONOR) is designated for facilitating violation or circumvention of EU sanctions. Listed vessels are banned from access to EU member-state ports and locks and from a broad range of maritime-transport-related services, effective 19 December 2025. The measure is an incremental listing update between the 19th (Regulation 2025/2033, October 2025) and 20th (Regulation 2026/506, April 2026) numbered sanctions packages, rather than a new package itself.

On 15 December 2025 the Council of the European Union adopted Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2588 and Council Decision (CFSP) 2025/2594, giving effect to Regulation (EU) No 269/2014 (Ukraine territorial-integrity asset-freeze regime) by adding 9 new designations: 5 individuals who own or control companies enabling Russian oil shipments and controlling a significant share of Russia's "shadow fleet," and 4 shipping companies headquartered in Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam that manage shadow-fleet tankers and engage in irregular, high-risk shipping practices. Listed persons and entities are subject to an EU asset freeze (and, for the individuals, a travel ban); EU persons and companies are prohibited from making funds or economic resources available to them.

On 12 December 2025 the Swiss Federal Council adopted the first tranche of listings aligning with the EU's 19th Russia sanctions package (Council Regulation (EU) 2025/2033, 23 October 2025), amending the Ordinance on Measures in Connection with the Situation in Ukraine and the Belarus Ordinance with effect from 13 December 2025. The decision adds asset freezes and entry/transit bans for 22 natural persons and 42 entities tied to Russia's military-industrial complex, energy sector and shadow-fleet vessel management; extends purchase/sale/insurance bans to over 100 additional tankers; imposes transaction restrictions on 5 Russian banks and 4 Russian-bank branches in Belarus and Kazakhstan for use of specialised financial-messaging services; sanctions Chinese and Hong Kong trading companies and refineries implicated in circumventing the G7 oil price cap; and designates 5 Belarusian persons linked to military-industrial activities. Divestment-exemption deadlines for Swiss persons winding down Russian holdings are extended to end-2026. This is a partial, listings-only tranche — the more substantive measures of the EU's 19th package (Russian LNG import ban, crypto-services prohibition, AI/HPC service bans) were not adopted until the Federal Council's follow-on decision of 25 February 2026.

On 29 October 2025 the Swiss Federal Council amended the Ordinance on Measures in Connection with the Situation in Ukraine (SR 946.231.176.72), published as AS 2025 662, completing Switzerland's alignment with the remaining goods, finance and services elements of the EU's 18th Russia sanctions package (Council Regulation (EU) 2025/1494, 18 July 2025) and tightening the parallel Belarus regime. The amendment took effect 30 October 2025 and adds: an export ban covering additional structural-metal, general-purpose-machinery and machine-tool goods; an import ban on further petroleum-oil products and waste/scrap categories; and expanded controls on commercial transactions and investment instruments spanning financial services, investment banking, crude-petroleum trade and motor-vehicle/trailer goods. The Federal Department of Economic Affairs (WBF) had already taken over the measures within its own competence on 12 August 2025; this decision closes the remainder. In parallel, the Federal Council's asset-freeze annexes were extended to 14 individuals and 41 companies/organizations.

Japan lowered its price cap on Russian-origin crude oil from USD 60 to USD 47.60 per barrel, effective for contracts concluded on or after 12 September 2025, aligning with the EU's July 2025 cut under its 18th sanctions package. The measure bars Japanese entities from importing, or providing shipping, insurance, financing or other services for, Russian crude priced above the new cap. In the same package Japan added 47 Russian entities and 9 individuals, 6 Crimea/Donbas-linked persons and entities, and 3 third-country entities to its asset-freeze list (transactions now require Ministry of Finance approval), and imposed export prohibitions on 2 Russian entities and 9 entities in third countries. Japan's own Russian crude imports are minimal (~0.1% of total crude imports, Jan-Jul 2025), so the measure is primarily a coalition-alignment and shipping/insurance-chokepoint action rather than a material change to Japan's own energy sourcing.

On 15 August 2025 — the day of the Putin-Trump summit in Alaska — Russia's president signed Decree No. 559, amending Decree No. 723 of 7 October 2022, which had transferred the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project's operating entity to a new Russian operator (Sakhalinmorneftegaz-Shelf, a Rosneft subsidiary) and frozen ExxonMobil's roughly 30% operator stake. The new decree sets conditions under which a foreign consortium party may reclaim its stake in Sakhalin-1 LLC: taking demonstrable action toward lifting Western sanctions that harm the project, signing supply contracts for foreign-made equipment and parts, and transferring previously accumulated funds to the project's accounts. Japan's SODECO and India's ONGC Videsh retained their stakes through the 2022 restructuring; ExxonMobil's stake remains unclaimed, with a Kremlin-set disposal deadline of 1 January 2026.