The UK Treasury’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) has issued a new general license which took effect on October 28, 2022 and continues in effect for six months, until April 28, 2023. The general license allows to receive legal fees from a person designated under UK sanctions. Let’s have a detailed look. 

Yesterday was issued Presidential Decree No. 618 (the “Decree”), which limits the ability to carry out transactions with LLC equity interests for the some categories of persons.

In the current situation, sanctions imposed by foreign states against Russia inevitably affect intellectual property or IP. Here is a list of the main EU, US and UK sanctions imposed against Russian entities and individuals that affect intellectual property issues.

On July 5, the President signed a new anti-sanctions decree No.430 (the “Decree No.430”), which eases the existing restrictions in currency regulation, but also introduces some new ones.

The Russian Central Bank has allowed payments for shares in, and contributions to, the property of non-residents without a special permit, if the relevant funds are deposited in rubles or in the currency of a friendly state.

The Russian Central Bank published new explanations on application of the Presidential Decrees dealing with anti-sanctions measures.The most notable ones seem to be the Central Bank’s comments about the procedure for applying the limit of RUB 10 million on obligations to foreign creditors pursuant to Clause 2 of Presidential Decree No.95.

On March 1, 2022, Presidential Decree No.81 “On additional economic measures for ensuring financial stability of the Russian Federation” was published, which adopted new prohibitions and made some adjustments to the measures adopted earlier.

Uneasy times have arrived, and various sanctions from the US, EU and UK against individuals and Russian companies, in particular, related to banking, as well as foreign-currency anti-sanctions are cause for apprehension when considering the thought of having disposition over assets in Russia and abroad.

On May 16, 2019 a draft law to add a new crime to the Russian Criminal Code: Article 281.1 “Facilitating Anti-Russian Sanctions” was submitted to the State Duma (it is not scheduled for hearing yet meaning that it might not move forward at all or be substantially altered). This new crime would punish, by imprisonment (up to 5 years), fines (up to 5 mln. rubles) and/or a ban on certain professional activities (for the term up 10 years), a number of activities that will have been deemed to have resulted in anti-Russian sanctions being imposed by a foreign country. The draft law would also amend the Russian Criminal Code to criminalize (under Article 128.1, Criminal Defamation) defamation of an entity or individual, if it resulted in sanctions against Russia or Russian citizens or entities.

Russian Federation continues to implement counter measures against USA.