Russia Sanctions
Last updated - 01.08.2025
International sanctions are restrictions imposed by governments on certain types of transactions with targeted countries, persons, or activities to achieve specific foreign policy or national security objectives, and can restrict a broad range of activities, including limiting the provision of certain financial services and restricting access to financial markets, funds, and economic resources. The UK, EU and USA have led global actions with a constant expansion of a sanction’s regime covering a wide range of financial, economic and trade activities.
Internationally coordinated sanctions against Russia have been in place since 2014 under various United Kingdom sanctions regimes and coordinated with key global allies including the European Union (EU), United States of America (USA), Canada and other nations.
In the years following, the UK has initiated sanctions against Russian nationals and entities under other regimes due to abuses of human rights in Russia, cyber criminality activity, anti-corruption measures and chemical warfare attacks.
In response to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022, the UK, EU, USA, and other nations responded with significant coordinated sanctions, targeting Russia’s financial sector, aviation and shipping, strategic sectors of the economy such as defence, aerospace and energy, individuals close to the Russia regime and those facilitating Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including actors in third countries.
Sanctions continue to be introduced and target key sources of the Russian state, economy, individuals, and entities, while efforts have also become increasingly focused on the prevention of sanctions evasion and the role of third-party enablers internationally.
As of 15 January 2025:
• 1,733 individuals and 382 entities are subject to UK sanctions under the Russia regime (PDF).
• Almost 2,400 individuals and entities are subject to EU sanctions in response to Russian military aggression against Ukraine.
UK Sanctions Regime
The UK’s Sanctions legislative framework regime is the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (SAMLA). This legislative framework establishes the way in which sanctions in the UK are created, enforced, and challenged.
The UK Government publishes the UK Sanctions List, which provides details of those designated under regulations made under SAMLA. The list also details which sanctions measures apply to these persons or ships, and in the case of UK designations, provides a statement of reasons for the designation
The UK Government response through the mechanism of international sanctions can be found on the following webpage:
The UK government issues statutory guidance providing a high-level summary of the measures imposed under each regime.
UK Sanctions on Russia
UK Sanctions applied to the Russia regime is mainly comprised of measures set out in the Russian (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (as amended), which are regulations made under SAMLA.
In 2025, the UK announced new measures against Russia, further restricting Russian access to goods, software and technology and imposing additional import bans.
The new measures, contained in Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 (the “2025 Amendments”) amend the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (the “2019 Regulations”).
The measures bring the UK sanctions programme more in line with EU prohibitions, including by imposing restrictions on certain sectoral software and technology.
The Government guidance published alongside the new legislation, sets out examples of concrete steps that businesses can take to ensure compliance with the complex restrictions.
UK sanctions bodies and authorities
Several organisations share responsibility for formulating sanctions policy and implementing, administering, and enforcing sanctions legislation in the UK. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is responsible for overall UK government policy on international sanctions. Summaries of the function of each are below. All have contact details for enquiries and up-to-date information on their activities.
Financial sanctions are administered and implemented by HM Treasury, and specifically by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), which was established in 2016 to ‘provide a high-quality service to the private sector, working closely with law enforcement to help ensure that financial sanctions are properly understood, implemented, and enforced
Trade sanctions are administered and implemented by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). The Export Control Joint Unit, which is part of the DBT, administers the UK’s system of export controls and licensing for military and dual-use items, as well as licences issued under the UK’s various trade sanctions regimes.
OTSI, part of the DBT will be responsible for enforcement of sanctions prohibiting: the provision of certain services (such as professional and legal services); moving, acquiring and making available restricted goods outside of the UK; transferring, acquiring and making available restricted technology outside of the UK; and providing ancillary services (technical assistance, financial services, brokering services) in relation to movement of restricted goods and technology outside of the UK.
In the current circumstances, the status of these measures is subject to change daily. UK Government will keep the .Gov.UK pages above refreshed daily, according to the introduction of new information and relevant sanction measures.
Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy and completeness of this summary at the date of publication, no reliance should be placed on its content, and it does not constitute legal advice. We would encourage readers to refer to the primary sources of the UK Government information for the continued update on sanction restrictions. We would encourage readers to take independent legal and financial advice on the implications of the UK sanctions regime on their UK and international economic, trade and financial operations if there is any suggestion of direct or indirect commercial connections with countries, entities, individuals, and products /services detailed in the information provided by the UK Government..