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

On 19 November 2025, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in a coordinated action with Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, designated 5 individuals and 7 companies linked to two Russia-based "bulletproof hosting" (BPH) providers, Media Land and Aeza Group, under Executive Order 13694. Media Land and its subsidiaries (Media Land Technology, Data Center Kirishi, ML Cloud) supplied server infrastructure to ransomware groups including LockBit, BlackSuit and Play. The designations also targeted three companies Aeza Group used to evade its July 2025 OFAC designation and rebrand its infrastructure: Hypercore Ltd. (United Kingdom), Smart Digital Ideas DOO (Serbia), and Datavice MCHJ (Uzbekistan). All designated persons' U.S.-nexus assets are blocked and U.S. persons are prohibited from transacting with them.

On 8 September 2025, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated 19 targets — companies and individuals based in Burma (Myanmar) and Cambodia — for operating or supporting networks of scam compounds that defraud Americans through virtual-currency investment fraud ("pig butchering") schemes. Nine targets operate out of Shwe Kokko, Burma, a scam-compound hub under the protection of the OFAC-designated Karen National Army (KNA), and ten targets are based in Cambodia, including Heng He Bavet's casino-linked complex in Bavet. Designations were made pursuant to Executive Order 13581 (transnational criminal organizations) and, for the Burma-based Shwe Myint Thaung Yinn Industry & Manufacturing Company, also under Executive Order 14014 (Burma sanctions program) as an entity acting on behalf of designated individual Tin Win. Treasury cited a U.S. government estimate that Americans lost over $10 billion in 2024 to Southeast Asia-based scam operations, a 66% increase over the prior year. All U.S.-nexus property of designated persons is blocked and U.S. persons are prohibited from transacting with them.

On 1 July 2025, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Aeza Group, a St. Petersburg, Russia-based "bulletproof hosting" (BPH) provider, along with two affiliated companies and four Aeza Group leaders (Arsenii Penzev, Yuri Bozoyan, Vladimir Gast, Igor Knyazev), for supplying server infrastructure that shielded ransomware operators, infostealer groups, and darknet drug marketplaces from law-enforcement takedown. In coordination with the UK's National Crime Agency, OFAC also designated Aeza International Ltd., a UK front company Aeza used to lease IP addresses to cybercriminals. The action was taken under Executive Order 13694 (as amended by E.O. 14144 and E.O. 14306) and builds on OFAC's February 2025 designation of BPH provider ZServers.

Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1903 amends Regulation (EU) 2022/263 so that its import ban and export restrictions, previously limited to the non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, also cover the non-government-controlled areas of Ukraine's Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. It was adopted on 6 October 2022 alongside the eighth Russia sanctions package and entered into force the day after publication in the Official Journal.

On 4 August 2022 OFAC formally published in the Federal Register nine general licenses (GLs 17–25) that had previously been made available only on OFAC's website under EO 14065 (Donetsk/Luhansk regions) and, for GL 25, also EO 13685 (Crimea). GL 17, which authorised wind-down of Donetsk/Luhansk transactions, had already expired on 23 March 2022. GLs 18–25 remain in force and authorise a structured set of humanitarian and civil-society carve-outs — covering agricultural commodities, medicine and medical devices, telecommunications, official international organisation business, personal remittances, internet-based communications, NGO activities, civil maritime services, and journalistic activities — within the otherwise restricted territory of Crimea, the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DNR), and the Luhansk People's Republic (LNR).

On 24 February 2022, hours after Russia's invasion of Ukraine began, the UK Foreign Secretary announced a full asset freeze on VTB, Russia's second-largest bank (£154bn in assets, 95,000 employees), alongside a freeze on all Russian bank assets in the UK and a ban on Russian companies raising finance on UK markets. The package designated more than 100 companies and individuals -- including five major defence firms (Rostec, Uralvagonzavod, Tactical Missile Corporation, United Aircraft Corporation, United Shipbuilding Corporation) and Putin-inner-circle figures such as Kirill Shamalov -- for asset freezes and travel bans. Aeroflot was banned from UK airspace and new export controls were imposed on electronics, telecommunications and aerospace goods to Russia.

The Autonomous Sanctions Amendment (Ukraine Regions) Regulations 2022 (F2022L00179) apply to the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk the autonomous sanctions measures already in place for Crimea and Sevastopol, commencing 28 March 2022. DFAT describes the measures as prohibiting trade in the transport, energy, telecommunications, and oil, gas and minerals sectors of those regions. Foreign Minister Marise Payne announced Australia's response on 24 February 2022, alongside listings of Russian individuals and banks.

Council Regulation (EU) 2022/263 prohibits importing into the EU any goods originating in the non-government-controlled areas of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, and bans the sale, supply, transfer or export of Annex II goods and technology (transport, telecommunications, energy, resource extraction) to those areas. It also bars new investment and financing there. It entered into force the day after adoption, 24 February 2022.

OFAC codified the Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Sanctions Regulations at 31 CFR Part 586, implementing Executive Order 13959 (November 12, 2020) as amended by Executive Order 14032 (June 3, 2021). The regulations prohibit US persons from purchasing or selling publicly traded securities of entities designated on OFAC's Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies (NS-CMIC) List, which identifies firms determined to support the People's Liberation Army or Chinese surveillance-technology programs. A divestment deadline of June 3, 2022 applied to entities named in the original EO 13959 annexes; future additions carry a one-year divestment window from the date of designation.