Biden bans Russian-linked ships from U.S. ports
Last edited Thu Apr 21, 2022, 11:46 AM - Edit history (1)
Source: Reuters
WASHINGTON, April 21 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden announced on Thursday the United States will ban Russian-affiliated ships from American ports, joining Canada and European nations,in the latest step to pressure Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
The White House will release a proclamation with more details. Reuters first reported Biden's planed action on Thursday and reported in early March the ban was under consideration by the White House.
"That means no ship, no ship that sails under the Russian flag or that is owned or operated by a Russian entity will be allowed to dock in a United States port or access our shores. None," Biden said Thursday.
The sources said that in 2021 Russian vessels made about 1,800 visits, a small percentage of overall traffic. The issue prompted an extensive Biden administration review to ensure the ban on Russian ships would not seriously impact U.S. supply chains.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-ban-russian-affiliated-ships-us-ports-sources-2022-04-21/
Presidential Proclamation - https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2022/04/21/a-proclamation-on-the-declaration-of-national-emergency-and-invocation-of-emergency-authority-relating-to-the-regulation-of-the-anchorage-and-movement-of-russian-affiliated-vessels-to-united-states-po/
April 21, 2022 • Presidential Actions
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) and section 1 of title II of Public Law 65-24, ch. 30, June 15, 1917, as amended (Magnuson Act) (46 U.S.C. 70051), I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, hereby find and proclaim that:
The policies and actions of the Government of the Russian Federation to continue the premeditated, unjustified, unprovoked, and brutal war against Ukraine constitute a national emergency by reason of a disturbance or threatened disturbance of international relations of the United States. In order to address this national emergency and secure the observance of the rights and obligations of the United States, I hereby authorize the Secretary of Homeland Security (Secretary) to make and issue such rules and regulations as the Secretary may find appropriate to regulate the anchorage and movement of Russian-affiliated vessels, and delegate to the Secretary my authority to approve such rules and regulations, as authorized by the Magnuson Act.
Section 1. I hereby prohibit Russian-affiliated vessels from entering into United States ports.
Sec. 2. The prohibition of section 1 of this proclamation applies except:
(a) to Russian-affiliated vessels used in the transport of source material, special nuclear material, and nuclear byproduct material for which, and for such time as, the Secretary of Energy, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Commerce, determines that no viable source of supply is available that would not require transport by Russian-affiliated vessels; and
(b) to Russian-affiliated vessels requesting only to enter United States ports due to force majeure, solely to allow seafarers of any nationality to disembark or embark for purposes of conducting crew changes, emergency medical care, or for other humanitarian need.
Sec. 3. For the purposes of this proclamation:
(a) the term “Russian-affiliated vessels” means:(i) vessels of Russian registry (i.e., the vessel is Russian flagged);
(ii) vessels that are Russian owned (i.e., the legal title of ownership of the vessel that appears on the ship’s registration documents is the Government of the Russian Federation or a Russian company, citizen, or permanent resident); or
(iii) vessels that are Russian operated (i.e., a Russian company, citizen, or permanent resident is responsible for the commercial decisions concerning the employment of a ship and decides how and where that asset is employed).
(b) the term “byproduct material” has the same meaning given to that term in section 11(e) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (AEA) (42 U.S.C. 2014(e)).
(c) the term “source material” has the same meaning given to that term in section 11(z) of the AEA (42 U.S.C. 2014(z)).
(d) the term “special nuclear material” has the same meaning given to that term in section 11(aa) of the AEA (42 U.S.C. 2014(aa)).
Sec. 4. The prohibition set forth in this proclamation shall be effective as of 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on April 28, 2022, and shall be immediately transmitted to the Congress and published in the Federal Register.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-first day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-sixth.
JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.
= new reply since forum marked as read
(I included the text in the OP comments)
and give it to Zelensky so he can start sinking all Russian Navy ships stationed close to Ukraine?
Does any country in the European Union have a Russian made submarine they'll sell for 1 ruble?
make their Navy Admirals regret Putler's war, maybe even help a coup gather steam.
AND computer database system reprogramming related to such imports (e.g., within Customs, etc) that needed to happen before making the final announcement.
Much of the government is automated (for the most part) in terms of tracking ship manifests, bills of lading, etc., but that needs to be coordinated to make it effective and we have so many ports of entry (where you have importers routinely do what is dubbed "port shopping" to unload their stuff at ports that they think "aren't paying as much attention" ). 
You also have a practice where a banned country's shipper may re-flag the vessel with another country's flag to get around sanctions, so that type of thing needs to be verifiable (if possible).
So it is basically suggesting that we import very little from them as it is and most of what we did get was oil, which was banned earlier on.
It does appear however, that the order is focusing on actual ships vs cargo, so I expect they could try to slide their stuff in via another (friendly-to-them) country, although a number of those nations are pariahs of the U.S. too so...
But as an ancillary thing to note - by targeting "ships", the order suggests also targeting those oligarch mega yachts too (some that might want to slide into big U.S. marinas frequented by the wealthy)!
