The Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No 7) Regulations 2022 (SI 2022/395) entered into force on 30 March 2022. The regulations, made under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018, extend the scope of the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (SI 2019/855) and provide a new power to designate a person by description rather than name and extend existing finance, trade and shipping sanctions to the non-government controlled areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine. The amendments also now prohibit the provision of technical assistance relating to aircraft and ships.

The new power of designation by description permits the Secretary of State to provide that persons of a specified description are designated persons in line with a parallel power to designate by name introduced by the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022. Designations by description may be made using an urgent or a standard procedure and will enable the collective designation of persons that are members of a group.

The extension of the prohibition of technical assistance relating to aircraft and ships by the amendment of Part 5 (Trade) of the 2019 Regulations, now prohibits a person from directly or indirectly providing such assistance relating to an aircraft or ship to, or for the benefit of, a person who has been designated for the purposes of that sanctions measure.

The amendment regulations extend the existing Crimea measures to the non-government controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine which are under de-facto control of Russia. The amendment regulations also now extend the existing shipping sanctions in respect of Crimea to enable the Secretary of State to issue a direction prohibiting British cruise ships from entering a port or ports located in these two non-government controlled regions.

Alongside these substantive changes the regulations also corrects errors and resolves issues with the existing sanctions regime.