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.
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
Updates since original post:
16 March 2026 – Sweden seizes the Sea Owl I
23 March 2026 – France seizes the Deyna
3 April 2026 – Sweden seizes the Flora 1
5 May 2026 – Sweden seizes the Jin Hui
1 June 2026 – France seizes the Tagor.
14 June 2026 – UK seizes the Smyrtos
23 June 2026 – France seizes the Deliver
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.
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.
Two previously missed investigations from German customs into luxury car exports to Russia:
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.
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”.
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:
Enforcement across Europe is trending upwards.
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”.
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).
Further to our post from last week regarding the prosecution of a Russian national in Belgium, for Russian sanctions breaches, it is now being reported that the prosecution is targeting three individuals.
The second suspect is the son of Viktor Labin (the first defendant). He is said to be currently living in Russia and the subject of an international arrest warrant.
The third suspect is currently out in bail.
The dual-use goods said to have been exported to Russia include iron, alumina, yttrium oxide, and explosive propagation detectors.
It is being reported that the Bulgarian authorities have approved the extradition of Sergey Ivin who was arrested at Sofia Airport in October 2025.
Extradition has been sought following an indictment that he was involved in the sale of sanctioned metallurgical products between 2017 and 2021 valued at US$350 million.
Mr Ivin has denied the charges.
The same report notes that a second extradition request in the same case, for Oleg Olshansky, is still being considered in the Bulgarian courts.
