Ukraine imposed sanctions on Moscow-based broadcasting service Vitrina TV, the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine said. The council said that the company "provides services for broadcasting Russian TV channels blocked in Ukraine." The restrictive measures will be imposed for a period of five years barring an extension. Further, sanctions were implemented against the Kyiv-based Nasha Praga LLC (Maxi-TV channel), Nash 24 LLC, Nash 365 LLC (Nash TV channel) and these companies' parent firm, Cypriot Demosena Investments. All the newly listed entities will be subject to an asset freeze and restriction of trade operations.
A group of countries aligned with the European Union's decision to extend its sanctions regime on Tunisia for another 12 months, until Jan. 31, 2023, the European Council said Feb. 16. North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia also implemented the extension.
Although the U.S should take steps to punish Chinese cyber hackers through sanctions and export controls, it shouldn't expect those tools to slow China’s cyber hacking capabilities, experts told the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. They said the U.S. should use sanctions in conjunction with other defensive tools to make it harder for China to carry out hacking.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative laid out the externalities to other economies of China's state-led economy in a 72-page annual report to Congress. "Since last year’s report, our assessment of China’s record in terms of transitioning to a market economy has not changed," the report said. While the report's framing is about how China complies with World Trade Organization rules, the authors minimized the WTO's ability to constrain China and emphasized that countries must expand domestic trade remedies or develop other tools to deal with China's rise.
Japan will work with other G-7 countries to impose sanctions against Russia if the country invades Ukraine, Japan Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said this week, according to an unofficial translation of his comments. “At this point in time, Japan is strongly demanding a solution through diplomatic negotiations,” Hayashi told reporters during a Feb. 15 news conference. “If an invasion by Russia occurs, Japan should take appropriate measures in cooperation with the G-7 and other international communities according to the actual situation, including imposing sanctions.”
If Russia doesn’t invade Ukraine, the U.S. and allies should still move forward with some sanctions to impose consequences on the Kremlin, experts and former government officials said. Those may include more sanctions against Russian oligarchs, they said, and possibly Nord Stream 2.
The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation amended entries under its Syria, Zimbabwe and Russia sanctions regimes. Amendments were made for Zimbabwe Defence Industries under the Zimbabwe list and for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych under the Russia list. Under the Syria sanctions regime, among 25 entries altered and still subject to asset freezes were those for individuals including Ali Mamluk, former head of the Syrian National Security Bureau, and Hossein Taeb, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is adding regulations to implement a pair of executive orders from November 2020 and June 2021 related to securities investments that finance Communist Chinese military companies. The regulations prohibit the purchase or sale of securities with any of the listed people or entities. In addition, the secretary of the treasury can designate further entities that have operated in the defense, surveillance, or related sectors of the Chinese economy.
The Commerce Department should add more Chinese companies to the Entity List, better restrict China’s government organizations and target the country with unilateral controls when appropriate, China Tech Threat said this week. The organization, which is run by Strand Consult and advocates for stronger export controls on China, said Commerce should add China semiconductor companies Yangtze Memory Technologies and Changxin Memory Technologies to the Entity List and tailor export controls to better target Chinese “pseudo-government organizations.” Commerce should also “prioritize” unilateral controls on American semiconductor manufacturing equipment by employing a “control-now-cooperate-later” approach, China Tech Threat said.
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