Sanctions

Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman and other oligarchs are exploiting European investment treaties to sue Ukraine for hundreds of millions, and in some cases billions, of dollars, according to a new investigation by Follow the Money.

A Russian “shadow fleet” tanker sanctioned by the UK, EU and U.S. continued transporting oil in late 2025, underscoring what an investigation by Follow the Money describes as the limited impact Western measures have had on the cash flow Moscow earns from crude exports.

Spanish prosecutors are investigating whether Madrid-based airline Plus Ultra used a €53-million Covid-era bailout to launder money embezzled from Venezuela through a web of companies in France, Switzerland and Spain, according to a report in El País.

The United States has imposed sanctions on four individuals and four companies it says helped recruit, pay and deploy Colombian mercenaries to fight for Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Tough U.S. sanctions imposed on Syria under former president Bashar al-Assad are on track to be lifted within weeks, after lawmakers folded their repeal into a sweeping annual defense policy bill.

Standard Chartered has settled a £1.5-billion investor lawsuit in London that alleged the bank downplayed the scale of its Iran sanctions breaches and misled shareholders about its compliance controls, the Financial Times said. 

United Nations expert is calling for the United States to lift its decades-old sanctions on Cuba, citing their corrosive impact on the country’s populace and economic future, Al Jazeera reported. 

Fugitive former Wirecard executive Jan Marsalek has been linked to a sprawling, multibillion-dollar money laundering network that British investigators say connects street-level drug dealers in the UK to sanctioned Russian oligarchs and the Kremlin’s security services, the Financial Times reported.

An intricate network of Russian, North Korean, and Gulf-based companies has been quietly helping funnel hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil to North Korea in apparent violation of U.N. sanctions, according to a new investigation by OCCRP and its affiliates.

The U.S. Treasury Department eased parts of its Belarus sanctions regime on Tuesday, lifting measures on the state airline Belavia and authorizing certain transactions tied to President Alexander Lukashenko’s presidential aircraft, Reuters reported.