Bloomberg Quotes Nnedi Ifudu on Scope of US Russia Sanctions
Contact:
For its article “US Quietly Asks Banks to Keep Some Ties With Russia, Even as Congress Balks,” Bloomberg quoted Akin Gump international trade partner Nnedi Ifudu.
The article discusses how large U.S. banks are caught between congressional enthusiasm for strong sanctions on Russia and the Biden-Harris administration’s attempts, via the Treasury and State departments, to have large banks continue doing business with certain Russian firms.
Said Ifudu, whose practice focuses on assisting clients with U.S. and international trade controls and regulatory compliance issues, “Congress needs to understand this—the U.S. government has not imposed a comprehensive embargo with Russia; there’s still pockets of business that are allowed.”
She noted that Treasury will continue to meet with banks to educate them “on those pockets of allowable transactions, especially in the humanitarian space,” adding, “The goal is never for the ordinary Russian to suffer. And so, the U.S. policies, I think, will continue to have to find ways to continue to encourage humanitarian transactions, and we need the banks to do that.”
