On February 23, 2022, the Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida, made an announcement that Japan will implement a set of economic sanctions against Russia and the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine.
Japan has condemned the latest Russian move of recognizing the break-away areas as a violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine as well as international law.
On February 21, 2022, the White House issued a new Executive Order that imposes comprehensive sanctions on the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (“DNR”) and Luhansk People’s Republic (“LNR”) regions of Ukraine. Concurrently with the issuance of the Executive Order, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control published six general licenses authorizing certain transactions involving the targeted regions. These sanctions were imposed in response to the Russian Government’s decision to recognize the DNR and LNR as independent from Ukraine on the same day.
On 21 February, the UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (“OFSI“), announced that it had issued a monetary penalty totaling GBP 36,393.45 to Clear Junction Limited, a provider of payment services. This penalty follows (and is associated with) OFSI’s earlier GBP 50,000 penalty against TransferGo, announced in August 2021.
The UK Government has today designated five Russian banks and three individuals in response to the Russian Government’s decision to recognise the independence of the parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions which are outside of Ukraine’s control.
Consistent with the Australian Foreign Minister’s announcement on 22 February 2022, the Prime Minister on 23 February 2022 announced that Australia is working on imposing additional sanctions measures on Russia that are aligned with those that the US and UK have announced.
On February 22, 2022, the US Government issued a number of additional sanctions measures against Russia in response to President Putin’s recognition of the independence of the “so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) and Luhansk People’s Republic in Ukraine (LNR)” and his request to deploy forces to those regions – with President Biden characterizing these developments as “the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.” The new US sanctions measures build on the comprehensive region-wide sanctions imposed on the two territories of DNR and LNR on February 21, 2022, as reported in our prior blog here.
On Tuesday, 22 February, a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Ministers took place to discuss a proposed package of sanctions in response to Russia’s actions in the Donetsk and Luhansk Regions of Ukraine.
The Swiss Federal Council has discussed the situation in eastern Ukraine at its meeting of 23 February 2022. It condemns Russia’s recognition of the two non-government-controlled territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as independent states as a violation of international law. While the Swiss government has not decided on adopting any sanctions or measures yet, it has stated that it wishes to ensure that Switzerland will not be used as a platform to circumvent sanctions imposed by the EU, as it has already done since 2014, and is therefore examining the newly adopted EU sanctions closely.
In response to Russia’s recognition of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic on February 21, 2022, Canada has announced the imposition of new sanctions measures.
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the US State Department, and the US Commerce Department have issued rules adjusting maximum civil monetary penalties under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act – Improvements Act of 2015.