An updated general license issued last week by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (see 2402290080) narrowed the scope of transactions that were previously authorized with Consorcio Venezolano de Industrias Aeronauticas y Servicios Aereos, S.A., Venezuela’s flagship airline, the agency said in March 1 guidance.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Feb. 29 updated a general license that authorizes certain transactions with Venezuela’s flagship airline. General License 45B, which replaced License 45A, updated and removed language relating to the types of transactions that are authorized with Venezuela’s Consorcio Venezolano de Industrias Aeronáuticas y Servicios Aéreos, also known as Conviasa.
Australia this week sanctioned seven Russian prison officials responsible for the “mistreatment” of opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who died in the prison earlier this month. Australia's foreign affairs ministry said it used its Magnitsky-style human rights sanctions authority to impose the designations (see 2112220008 and 2203290005).
The Biden administration hasn't ruled out the possibility of designating the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), but it first wants to see whether its recent labeling of the Yemen-based group as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) has its intended effect, a State Department official said Feb. 27.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned the Guatemala-based Los Pochos Drug Trafficking Organization, three of its members and four affiliated companies for their involvement in trafficking cocaine to the U.S.
The U.S. needs a more measured and analytics-driven approach to sanctions, export controls and other economic statecraft tools, said Daleep Singh, President Joe Biden’s incoming deputy national security adviser for international economics. He warned about the risks of relying too heavily on new, large-scale sanctions against China and called on the U.S. to create a formal doctrine to guide its use of trade restrictions.
The U.S. and U.K. this week announced coordinated designations against Iran and the Yemen-based Houthis for their roles in carrying out attacks on commercial cargo ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned Hong Kong-registered Kohana Company Limited and Marshall Islands-registered Iridescent Co Ltd. for operating a vessel shipping more than $100 million worth of Iranian commodities to China. The Panama-flagged Kohana is on its way to China, where it plans to offload the cargo to Chinese businesses, OFAC said.
Canada and Australia last week announced a range of new Russia-related sanctions to mark the two-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Treasury Department published an analysis of the Russian oil price cap last week, saying that sanctions enforcement is “successfully forcing” Russia to sell oil at a discount, although Russian oil export markets have remained stable. The analysis includes data that tracks the price of Russian oil over the last two years and analyzes how the country’s revenue and exports have changed over time.