WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a rule applying further restrictions on Russia and Belarus. The Department of Commerce is taking these actions to enhance the effectiveness of U.S. controls and to better align its controls on both Russia and Belarus with those implemented by U.S. allies.

“As numerous analyses have shown, Russia is struggling to repair, replace, and replenish its arms stockpiles and today’s action will continue to degrade their ability to sustain military aggression against Ukraine,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez. “We will continue working with our international partners to tighten our collective restrictions as necessary to maximize our impact and demonstrate to Russia and its enablers that we will not hesitate to act to further isolate them.”

“Today’s action demonstrates that the U.S. and our international partners will continue to stand with Ukraine and clamp down on Russia’s access to technologies and items that may be used to support military capabilities,” said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration Thea D. Rozman Kendler. “It also sends a clear message to those that seek to enable or support Russia’s military that we will not hesitate to take strong action to cut them off as well.”

The text of the rule released today is available on the Federal Register’s website here (link). The effective date is September 15, 2022.

The rule issued today imposes further export controls on industrial and commercial items that can support Russian and Belarusian military aggression against Ukraine. Specifically, the rule:

• Expands the scope of the Russian industry sector sanctions to add items potentially useful for Russia’s chemical and biological weapons production capabilities and items needed for advanced production and development capabilities that enable advanced manufacturing across a number of industries.
• Imposes controls on quantum computing-related hardware, software, and technology, which complement an action taken by the Department of the Treasury to prohibit quantum computing services to Russia, as well as sanctions imposed by the Department of State on Russian companies supporting its quantum computing capabilities.
• Adds Belarus to the scope of industry sector sanctions that currently apply only to Russia.
• Expands the ‘military end user’ and ‘military-intelligence end user’ controls. Specifically, this applies the Russian/Belarusian-Military End User Foreign Direct Product (FDP) rule to entities located outside of Russia and Belarus that were previously added to the Entity List for having continued to supply Russian entities on the Entity List or are under sanctions since Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine (BIS June 28, 2022 announcement here). Labeling these six entities as Russian ‘military end users’ and having the Russia/Belarus-Military End User FDP rule apply to them will degrade Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine, as these entities produce items needed by the Russian and Belarusian military and industrial sectors.
• Refines existing controls on Russia and Belarus to more closely align with requirements implemented by allies by adding additional dollar value exclusion thresholds for ‘luxury goods.’

Makes twelve additional corrections and clarifications to existing controls on Russia and Belarus and make them more effective.

For more information, visit www.bis.doc.gov.

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