General – European Sanctions Enforcement

March 16, 2026March 16, 2026 by Mark Handley

Spain – prosecution for military exports to Russia

It is being reported that the Spanish authorities are bringing a criminal prosecution for suspected exports of military aircraft engines to Russia in breach of the EU’s sanctions.

One individual, Olga V, has been in custody since her arrest in 2023. Another individual, Kostiantyn Antonovich Kucher, former Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Industrial Policy, is in detention in Azerbaijan pending extradition proceedings to bring him to Spain.

It is alleged that the two, and a network of companies (including Aero Design Systems and Global Force Technology), sought to export aircraft engines to Russia including to the United Aircraft Corporation.

The investigation has included the seizure of three engines by German customs.

March 11, 2026March 11, 2026 by Mark Handley

Portugal – Tax and Customs Authority with ongoing Russian sanctions investigations

It is being reported (originally here behind a paywall, and here) that Portugal’s Tax and Customs Authority currently has ongoing investigations into possible breaches and/or circumvention of the EU’s Russian sanctions.

These appear to be separate from, and additional to, those investigations, as per our earlier post, being conducted by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

March 11, 2026March 11, 2026 by Mark Handley

Spain – raids and three arrests relating to alleged transfers of villas by a designated person

On Monday the Spanish authorities conducted raids on multiple properties in Mallorca alleged to be owned by or for Nikolai Kolesov, a businessman designated under the EU’s sanctions since December 2024.

Three people have been arrested including a lawyer and someone who stood as proxy as part of the alleged transactions.

The raids were conducted on the homes of those arrested and at the villa properties.

March 9, 2026March 9, 2026 by Mark Handley

Round up of sanctions-related European vessel seizures

There have been some high-profile examples of this in the last month or so, but the practice can be seen to have started years ago, while the number of examples made it sensible to gather them all in one place.

The vessels are not all oil tankers but also include bulk cargo carriers and container vessels:

26 February 2022 – France seizes the Baltic Leader

20 April 2022 – Greece seizes the Lana

10 January 2025 – Germany seizes the Eventin

17 January 2025 – Finland seizes the Eagle S

14 April 2025 – Estonia seizes the Kiwala

6 October 2025 – France seizes the Boracay

23 December 2025 – Sweden seizes the Adler

2 January 2026 – Finland seizes the Fitburg

19 January 2026 – Italy seizes the Hizir Reis

27 January 2026 – France seizes the Grinch

20 February 2026 – Denmark seizes the Nora

2 March 2026 – Belgium seizes the Ethera

9 March 2026 – Sweden seizes the Caffa

March 9, 2026March 9, 2026 by Mark Handley

Latvia – company and individual convicted of timber imports from Russia

The Latvian authorities have convicted, and fined, an individual and company for sanctioned timber imports from Russia.

The imports were of 50 packages of timber.

The company which procured the import was fined €39,000, and the individual who arranged the imports was fined €14,800. In addition the individual had the proceeds of the sale (€13,935) confiscated as the proceeds of crime.

As separate prosecution has been brought again the customs agent.

March 9, 2026March 9, 2026 by Mark Handley

Estonia – individual sentenced to 3.5 years’ jail for assisting Russian exports

Further to our earlier post regarding his extradition from Italy to Estonia, it is now being reported that Ivan Anchevsky has been sentenced to 3 and a half years jail for prohibited exports of equipment to Russia.

The judgment remains subject to appeal.

The conviction relates to the shipping of equipment from Switzerland to Russia with assistance from Anchevsky and his companies Militec LLC and Militec Europe.

As part of the same trial Anchevsky was acquitted of charges of exporting dual use goods.

March 4, 2026March 4, 2026 by Mark Handley

Germany – two Customs investigations into Russian imports/exports

Two previously missed investigations from German customs into luxury car exports to Russia:

A. December 16, 2025

After commencing an investigation in December 2024, and raids conducted in May 2025, German Customs obtained an asset freeze over €16.5m.

The investigation is into a 41 year-old German-Moldovan national suspected of exporting 236 vehicles to Russia valued at €18.86m.

Further searches were conducted at properties in Ger and Teuchern in December 2025.

B. February 25, 2026

Raids and property searches were carried out in Hamburg relating to a company’s managing director suspected of more than 900 prohibited imports from Russia valued at over €4m.

The press release notes that “due to the ongoing investigations, no statement can yet be made about the type of goods”.

March 4, 2026March 4, 2026 by Mark Handley

The blog’s 700th post – sanctions enforcement milestones reached

With today’s post on convictions in Germany, the blog has reached the milestone of 700 posts.

The post also takes European Sanctions Enforcement over several other milestones:

The €20m confiscated is Europe’s seventh largest sanctions fine/confiscation since 2017. All but one of those from the UK were fines imposed by the Financial Conduct Authority.

There has now been more than €500m in fines, penalties or confiscations since 2017.

More than a century of jail time has been handed out since 2024, and Germany alone has seen sentences of more than 70 years of jail since 2017.

Enforcement across Europe is trending upwards.

March 2, 2026March 2, 2026 by Mark Handley

Portugal – Public Prosecutor opens 26 investigations into Russian sanctions breaches

It is being reported that the Portuguese Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened 26 criminal investigations into possible Russian sanctions breaches since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine.

No further information is provided as to the nature of the alleged offending or the current state of progress of those investigations.

It is also reported that the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) has “been monitoring and assessing presence in Portugal of elements connected, directly or indirectly with Vladimir Putin’s regime”.

February 27, 2026February 27, 2026 by Mark Handley

United Kingdom – Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation has “about five cases close to conclusion”

In oral evidence given yesterday to the UK Parliament’s Business and Trade Subcommittee on Economic Security and Export Controls, the Minister for Trade stated (at around 16:18 in the video) in relation to the enforcement efforts at the Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation:

“We have got about five cases which are quite close to conclusion and could lead to substantial measures being taken. … Significant numbers of cases have been either closed because there is nothing to pursue, or have been referred directly to HMRC or soe other government departments to be able to take further action. … I think we have got pretty effective enforcement of our sanctions regime. I would argue that its more effective than any other country that I have yet seen. …

We’ve had 185 potential breaches that were reported, 5 as I say are at a late stage, 117 closed, 57 reported to HMRC“.

HMRC gave evidence that in 2025 it had had 42 referrals from OTSI, of which 19 are still under review, 8 concluded with no further action taken, 9 cases were linked to pre-existing HMRC investigations, 1 case was referred to the National Crime Agency, and 5 cases that were subject to a “de-confliction” process between OTSI and HMRC to work through enforcement responsibility.

HMRC also stated that it currently had 21 live criminal investigations for export control offences (note that as per an earlier previous post HMRC very recently stated it had 51 investigations in 2024/2025).