Search for ships currently entered in the London P&I Club by their name or I M O number Search Search for correspondents in our global network by country/area or port/city Search US Sanctions – Russia, Rusal and Venezuela 26 April 2018 As many Members are already aware, the US sanctions landscape continues to change. We highlight below some recent changes to Russian-related sanctions, in relation to which Members should continue to carry out careful due diligence, as well as a currency dilemma for vessels proceeding to Venezuelan ports. • US Sanctions relating to Russia On 6 April 2018, the US Office of Foreign Asset Affairs (“OFAC”) added a number of Russian individuals/entities to the SDN list. The new SDNs consist of officials, oligarchs and oligarch owned companies regarded as benefiting from the Putin regime and which are alleged to play a key role in advancing malign activities. This includes companies in the oil and gas, energy and power sectors, and a number of producers of aluminium, machinery and weapons. Although the sanctions do not have extra-territorial effect, amended sanctions legislation provides that “it is now mandatory that sanctions be imposed on any foreign person who is determined to have knowingly facilitated a significant transaction for or on behalf of any person subject to U.S. sanctions against Russia” (our emphasis in bold). Non-US persons and entities, as well as US persons and entities, should therefore be mindful of the effect of these sanctions. An overview of these sanctions, as well as some analysis of their effects, is provided by New York lawyers, Freehill Hogan & Mahar (“Freehills”), in their article which is available   here . • OFAC General Licence for Rusal Amongst the recently designated companies is United Company Rusal PLC (“Rusal”) which is the world’s second largest producer of aluminium and a major shipper of materials and products. With disruption of so many shipping contracts and charterparties