Today, the European Union imposed asset freeze sanctions on a number of prominent Russian oligarchs, two CEOs of Russian energy companies, and a number of Russian government officials.

Among the oligarchs targeted are Alexei Mordashov the majority owner of steel maker Severstal, Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven who together control Alfa Group, Gennady Timchenko the

The new U.S. embargo on the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) regions of Ukraine present U.S. companies with the complicated task of determining whether a transaction or account involves a person located within either region.

The situation is similar to the challenge presented by the 2014 Crimea embargo.  To comply

Today, the Bureau of Industry & Security (BIS) is amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to eliminate most reporting requirements related to open source encryption software and certain “mass market” encryption items.  Today’s rule also revises the Commerce Control List (CCL) to implement updates from the December 2019 Wassenaar Arrangement (WA) Plenary meeting.

Open source

Today the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added 24 Chinese state-owned companies to the Entity List for their role in the construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea.  The Entity List prohibits the export, re-export, and transfer (in-country) of items subject to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to these companies without a

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) recently published changes to its encryption regulations in an effort to simplify the text and focus the scope of controls.  The biggest change is that Note 4, the “primary purpose exemption,” has been replaced by a positive list of controlled items.  These changes also introduce the term “cryptography