A former top U.S. national security official argued for a more cautious approach to U.S. sanctions policy, saying the administration should seriously assess whether sanctions will work before making them a default foreign policy tool. Although “sanctions can work” when they impose consequential political or economic costs, many U.S. sanctions today don’t have as strong of a purpose, Gregory Treverton, chairman of the National Intelligence Council from 2014 to 2017, said in an Aug. 15 opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times. When the U.S. “targets individual Russians or Chinese or Iranians, it is almost always a symbolic gesture, like indicting foreigners who will never be extradited,” Treverton said. “Symbols matter but concrete results are better.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Aug. 23 announced sanctions against a high-level Eritrean military official for his role in human rights abuses committed during the ongoing conflict in Tigray. Gen. Filipos Woldeyohannes, chief of staff of the Eritrean Defense Forces, was added to the Specially Designated Nationals list on the same date. Filipos was designated under the Magnitsky Act “for being a leader or official of an entity that is engaged in serious human rights abuse,” the OFAC release said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control recently sanctioned three Cuban government officials for their roles in connection with the suppression of protests in the country, it said. The agency added Roberto Legra Sotolongo and Andres Laureano Gonzalez Brito of the Cuban Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces, as well as Abelardo Jimenez Gonzalez of the Cuban Ministry of Interior, to the Specially Designated Nationals List on Aug. 19. The designations mark the fourth round of sanctions since pro-democracy protests started in Cuba on July 11.
The Biden administration sanctioned two Russian individuals and a Russian vessel involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, the State Department said on Aug. 20. The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated the parties under the Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act (PEESA), which authorizes sanctions against Russia’s energy sector and its use of energy export pipelines. "The administration continues to oppose Nord Stream 2 as a bad deal for Ukraine, and a bad deal for Europe, and a harmful Russian geopolitical project," State spokesperson Ned Price said during a briefing. "We remain committed to implementing PEESA even as we take steps to reduce the risks an operational NS2 pipeline would pose to European energy security and the security of Ukraine and frontline NATO and EU countries."
The State Department and the Office of Foreign Assets Control recently announced a series of sanctions against Russia, including import restrictions on firearms and the designation of entities and individuals connected the poisoning of Russian opposition figure Aleksey Navalny. Coming on the one-year anniversary of Navalny’s poisoning with Novichok nerve agent, the new sanctions are being carried out “in concert” with the United Kingdom, State said.
The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation added seven names to its chemical weapons sanctions list, in an Aug. 20 financial sanctions notice. Added are Alexey Alexandrov, Vladimir Panyaev, Ivan Vladimirovich Osipov, Vladimir Mikhailovich Bogdanov, Kirill Vasilyev, Stanislav Valentinovich Makshakov and Alexei Semenovich Sedov, who are each subject to an asset freeze. All seven are operatives of Russia's Federal Security Service.
The European Council announced the alignment of third countries to its sanctions regimes on Lebanon and Iran. North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Georgia aligned themselves with the measures pertaining to the Lebanon sanctions. Except for Georgia, the same countries, along with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Ukraine and Moldova aligned themselves with the restrictive measures Iran sanctions.
The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration rolled out new web portal meant to connect the NNSA “nonproliferation efforts to U.S. nuclear technology exporters,” the agency said Aug. 17. The portal, called U.S. Nuclear Nexus, includes a page dedicated to export control compliance. The site “will help industry better understand complex U.S. export control regulations for civilian nuclear technology,” the NNSA said.
The Environmental Protection Agency is setting new significant new use rules (SNURs) under the Toxic Substances Control Act for 56 chemical substances subject to Premanufacture Notices, it said in an Aug. 18 final rule. As a result of the SNURs, persons planning to manufacture, import or process any of the chemical substances for an activity designated as a significant new use by this rule are required to notify EPA at least 90 days in advance. Importers of chemicals subject to these SNURs will need to certify their compliance with the SNUR requirements, and exporters of these chemical substances will now become subject to export notification requirements. The final rule takes effect Oct. 18. The SNURs cover the following:
It remains unclear how strictly the U.S. will enforce sanctions against the Taliban to try to cut the group off from the U.S. financial system as it overtakes Afghanistan, Brian O’Toole, a former Treasury Department sanctions official, told NPR’s Marketplace Aug. 17. “If the Taliban come in and are, quote-unquote, kind of reasonable upfront -- they’re not stoning people in soccer stadiums right away kind of thing -- you could see a scenario in which the U.S. is not as interested in enforcing sanctions,” said O’Toole, a sanctions expert at the Atlantic Council. He said the U.S. may be waiting to first see how the Taliban operates. More concerning actions, including human rights abuses, could lead to strict enforcement of U.S. sanctions. The White House has declined to answer specific questions about how it will impose sanctions against Afghanistan and the Taliban, but National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said sanctions are being considered (see 2108170075).