On June 26, 2023, the UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation amended General License INT/2022/1710676 under regulation 64 of the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulation 2019, extending its provisions until March 31, 2024. The general license temporarily enables certain North American subsidiaries of Evraz plc, a designated Russian steel manufacturer, to continue business operations in the UK, and permits UK individuals and entities to transact with Evraz North America plc, Evraz Inc. NA, and Evraz Inc.–Canada.
On June 26, 2022, OFSI also amended General License INT/2022/1875276 to temporarily authorize, until May 30, 2024, certain payments and activities related to the provision of Civilian Telecommunications Services and News Media Services to Designated Persons (“DP”) that would otherwise be prohibited under Regulations 11 to 17A of the Russia Regulations, including payments to, from or related to contracts involving designated person ZAO TransTeleCom Company. The general license was amended to remove PJSC MegaFon’s classification as a Civilian Telecommunication DP and remove Mobile TeleSystems PJSC’s (MTS), PJSC Moscow City Telephone Network’s (MGTS), and PJSC MegaFon’s classification as News Media Services DPs. These entities were removed because OFSI had no reason to believe that they were owned or controlled by a designated person. The amendment also added Rossiya Segodnya as a News Media Services DP and updated the definition of Civilian Telecommunications DPs to ensure that certain subsidiaries of ZAO TransTeleCom were covered entities under General License INT/2022/1875276.
It is also important to note that, on June 20, 2023, the UK amended its general license table format in an effort to improve the use, accessibility, and readability of general licenses. Users can now access each license using a link under the License Number heading, while a link to the publication notice can be found under the Details and Publication Notice heading.
General License – INT/2022/1710676 | General License INT/2022/1710676 – Publication Notice | General License INT/2022/1875276 | General License INT/2022/1875276 – Publication Notice | General license table format update