With regard to Russian interference in the Crimean peninsula, the European Union has recently announced its intention to consider sanctions against Russia. This will not remain without consequences for companies in the Russian business.
Threatening Russian sanctions for companies
To date, the EU has not yet adopted any sanctions that significantly affect Russia’s business. Finally, a 3-step plan was defined, of which only step 2 was reached. In the second stage, sanctions have so far only been imposed on Russian and Ukrainian persons. However, these are mainly people with governmental responsibilities. As a rule, companies doing business in Russia do not have any connections to these persons.
Sanctions in the Russian business – what to pay attention to
However, companies should carefully monitor whether the third stage is approached within the framework of the 3-step plan. More comprehensive sanctions are then to be expected. Companies should exercise caution here. Because a violation of fixed sanctions can be punished with a fine. If the offence is committed intentionally, criminal proceedings are even imminent.
Companies should therefore urgently review their internal procedures and processes to ensure that sanctions imposed do not violate Russia’s sanctions.
It remains to be seen exactly how the Russian sanctions will turn out. We must also wait and see what will happen to contracts that were concluded before the sanctions were defined. For renegotiated contracts, it should already be clarified now how to deal with the situation if the deal threatens to fail later because of sanctions imposed against Russia.
If you have any questions about Russian sanctions and prevention, please do not hesitate to call us.
