On December 22, 2023, President Biden issued Executive Order (EO) 14114, which expands existing sanctions against certain Russian “financial facilitators” and the import of certain commodities from Russia.

EO 14114 amends EO 14024, and provides the U.S. Department of the Treasury with the authority to sanction financial institutions determined to have aided or facilitated certain types of transactions involving Russia’s “military industrial base.”

Additionally, EO14114 adds sanctions on the import of diamonds and certain seafood items from Russia. The EO provides the U.S. with the authority to ban diamonds originating in Russia, as well as the authority to ban the import of certain seafood products “harvested in Russian waters or by Russian-flagged vessels.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a bulletin through its Cargo Systems Messaging Service (CSMS) with instructions that all entries that include the affected commodities will require a self-certification statement on the importer’s company letterhead that confirms that the products in the shipment were not harvested in Russian Federation waters or by Russian-flagged vessels, regardless of whether they have been substantially transformed outside of the Russian Federation. This self-certification will be required to be uploaded into the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Document Image System (DIS).

Executive Order 14114 went into effect on December 22, 2023.

Executive Order 14114 can be found here:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/12/26/2023-28662/taking-additional-steps-with-respect-to-the-russian-federations-harmful-activities

The CSMS bulletin with guidance on import of certain seafood items from Russia can be found here:
https://content.govdelivery.com/bulletins/gd/USDHSCBP-3816d1d?wgt_ref=USDHSCBP_WIDGET_2

An OFAC page containing guidance and general licenses related to EO 14114 and its previous iterations can be found here:
https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions/20231222