The European Commission added to its sanctions FAQs for the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts on April 18.
The EU General Court last week rejected a challenge from Belgium and Czech Republic-based company Cogebi to EU import restrictions on Russian-made mica products. The court said that the European Council had laid out sufficient reasons for barring the import of mica products in that the council appropriately found the sale of mica products to "generate significant revenues for the Russian Federation."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said April 21 that if sanctions are imposed on a unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), “I will fight this with all my powers.” Axios reported the previous day that the Biden administration plans to sanction the IDF’s Netzah Yehuda battalion for alleged human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank.
The Senate on April 23 plans to begin considering a House-passed bill that would ban TikTok in the U.S. unless China’s ByteDance divests the popular social media application (see 2404180020).
The Council of the EU on April 19 added four Israeli individuals and two entities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to the EU Global Human Rights sanctions regime for their role in "serious human rights abuses against Palestinians." The entities are Lehava, a "radical right-wing Jewish supremacist group," and Hilltop Youth, a "radical youth group" with members known for conducting violent acts against "Palestinians and their villages in the West Bank," the council said. The sanctioned individuals are two Hilltop Youth leaders and two other individuals who have committed violent acts against Palestinians.
Florida-based steel traders John Unsalan and Sergey Karpushkin were sentenced to six years and 21 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in a scheme to help Russian oligarch Sergey Kurchenko violate U.S. sanctions, DOJ announced.
Four congressional committee leaders urged the Biden administration on April 19 to consider sanctioning Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its leader, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti, for human rights violations.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on April 19 sanctioned two entities for raising funds for two Israelis who were sanctioned in February for attacking West Bank Palestinians (see 2402010053).
The U.S. is sanctioning three entities in China and one in Belarus for supplying missile-applicable items to Pakistan’s ballistic missile programs, including its long-range missile program, the State Department announced April 19. The entities are Granpect Company Limited, Tianjin Creative Source International Trade Company LImited, and Xi’an Longde Technology Development Company Limited, all of China; and Belarus-based Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant.
U.S. defense companies plan to closely monitor the implementation of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) exemption for Australia and the U.K. to ensure it meets its promise of reducing licensing burdens for defense trade, industry representatives told a congressional panel last week.