US Announces More Sweeping Sanctions, Export Controls for Russia, Belarus

The White House today announced a series of additional sanctions and export controls targeting Russia and Belarus for the invasion of Ukraine, including new restrictions on technology and software exports to Belarus, export controls on shipments of oil and gas extraction equipment to Russia, blocking sanctions on 22 Russian defense entities and a prohibition on Russian cargo planes flying to and from the U.S. Commerce will also add more entities to its Entity List that support Russian and Belarusian security services and defense efforts.

As part of the measures, shipments to Belarus will face many of the same export restrictions applied last week to Russia, including licensing restrictions under the foreign direct product rule and a near total ban on exports of items to Belarusian military end-users. Commerce said the export restrictions will take effect today when pre-publication notices are filed in the Federal Register.