Kamo Kirakosyan pleaded guilty Wednesday to one charge linked to a criminal conspiracy to export goods from the United States to the Russian Federation through the Republic of Armenia.

In a social media post Wednesday, President Donald Trump heralded 50% duties on "any and all goods sold to the United States of America" from "a Country supplying Military Weapons to Iran." The new levies, he said, would be "effective immediately." While nothing has materialized 24 hours later, trade watchers have theories.

Cryptocurrency is playing a growing role in financing the procurement of low-cost military drones and components linked to conflicts involving Russia and Iran, according to a  new report by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. The findings highlight emerging compliance risks at the intersection of digital finance and modern warfare, as well as potential avenues for monitoring adversaries' acquisitions.

The British government released a comprehensive overview of its sanctions regime this week, including plans to double maximum penalties for civil financial sanctions violations. The policy paper follows recent confirmation that the government plans to introduce new legislation to require exporters to obtain licenses for shipments at risk of diversion to sanctioned destinations, namely Russia.

May 1 the Treasury Department issued sanctions targeting Russia’s military-industrial base and chemical and biological weapons programs,  as well as companies and individuals in third countries that help Russia acquire key inputs for weapons or defense-related production. The action includes nearly 60 targets located in Azerbaijan, Belgium, the PRC, Russia, Slovakia, Türkiye, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).  

The European Council sanctioned six individuals responsible for serious human rights violations in the Russian Federation and in the territories of Ukraine that Russia has temporarily occupied, including violations of freedom of opinion and expression. The individuals listed include prosecutors and judges active in courts established by Russia’s occupying force in illegally annexed Crimea. as well as two members of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) that either took part in torturing journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko, or conducted the investigations in his case, and those of members of the Crimean Tatar community, and of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Crimea.

The Council of the European Union has agreed on a negotiating position for a draft directive designed to improve the tracking, identification, freezing, confiscation, and management of criminal assets, While legislation in Washington aims to provide additional aid to Ukraine using assets confiscated from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and other Russian sovereign assets.

Friday, the EU Council announced the adoption of the eleventh comprehensive package of sanctions, imposing restrictive measures on an additional 71 individuals and 33 entities identified as …

A paper issued by CSIS, a Washington think tank, details progress to date of the Putin regime in maintaining advanced technology supply lines in the face of Allied sanctions. The report assesses the impact of Western sanctions and allied export regulations on Russia's defense sector, focusing on the production of core weapons and systems.

Four US citizens and three Russian nationals have been charged with conspiracy to use US citizens as illegal agents of the Russian government, including a conspiracy to recruit US citizens from academic and research institutions to participate in a public diplomacy program.

The RAPTAC received a briefing by Damien Spleeters, Conflict Armament Research, on chains of supply of components found in Russian and Iranian weapons used in Ukraine, and his organizations outreach to industry.

Following through on their commitment to “work collectively on further measures on Russian diamonds,” made after last month’s G-7 Summit, US and European Commission officials met …

Elizabeth Rosenberg, the assistant Treasury secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, added to the drumbeat of criticism of sanction dodging regimes, telling a meeting of Women in International Trade that the UAE was a “country of focus” for the US.

Justice announced the arrest of the principals of a Kansas avionics distributor for  the export of  aviation technology from the United States to Russia and Russian end users.