Good morning. The U.S. took its first actions Thursday to enforce sweeping restrictions on the export of technology and industrial goods to Russia, a warning to Russian companies and any foreign countries who seek to help them circumvent the measures aimed at undermining Russia’s defense and technology industries.

Commerce Department officials said they were issuing orders to deny three Russian airlines— Aeroflot, Azur Air, and UTair—the ability to access U.S.-made parts or receive services from anyone anywhere in the world. They said they were taking the actions after the airlines violated export controls by flying U.S.-made aircraft or foreign-made aircraft containing U.S. parts. None of the airlines could be immediately reached for comment.

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U.S. officials said the airlines were operating flights within Russia and to and from countries including China, India, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, rendering them subject to the U.S. export controls and requiring them to obtain licenses, which they didn’t have, officials said.

Analysts and officials have been concerned that China, Russia’s strategic partner, would help Russia circumvent the controls. Read more.

Brian Nelson, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence and the senior U.S. Treasury official for sanctions, will be speaking at the Risk & Compliance Forum on May 10. We’ve also added a breakout session to discuss navigating sanctions imposed on Russia due to the Ukraine war. You can register for a complimentary ticket here.

Increased regulatory guidance is crucial to the continuing growth of the cryptocurrency sector in the U.S., said panelists Thursday at one of the largest bitcoin conferences of the year.

But uncertainty about how the U.S. will write its cryptocurrency regulation remains one of the top barriers for both crypto firms looking to enter the U.S. market and for digital assets seeking to attract institutional investors, according to Compliance & Regulation panelists at the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami Beach, Fla.

Without clear regulatory standards, the ways that crypto firms navigate their compliance risks and processes become a key business strategy, they said.

Consulting firm AlixPartners LLP has hired Shawn Belovich, a former White House information security officer who specializes in cybersecurity and compliance, as a managing director.

AlixPartners announced Mr. Belovich’s hiring Thursday, adding that he will join the firm’s digital practice and be based in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Belovich from 2013 to 2018 managed the White House’s enterprise security strategy, a role in which he directed security risk assessments and was responsible for information security policy, AlixPartners said.

More recently, he worked in the forensic practice at accounting firm BDO USA LLP.

–Richard Vanderford

The House and Senate passed bills stripping Russia of its most-favored-nation trade status and approving a ban on Russian oil imports to punish Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, sending the bills to the president’s desk.

The Suspending Normal Trade Relations with Russia and Belarus Act and the Suspending Energy Imports from Russia Act both passed the Senate 100-0 Thursday morning. In the House, the trade bill passed 420-3, and the oil ban passed 413-9.

The bills had passed the House last month, but had stalled in the Senate. The energy ban legislation closely mirrored an executive order President Biden issued last month and it hadn’t been clear if the Senate would take up the legislation. The trade bill had been held up over several issues, including disagreements on sanctions language.

• U.S. and European moves to sanction two adult daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin cast a spotlight on a family shrouded for years in secrecy.
   
• Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the design and development of a digital dollar would likely take years if the U.S. chose to create one, while outlining the various questions the Biden administration is weighing as it considers ways to make payments faster in the U.S.
   
• The Senate voted 53-47 to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the 116th Supreme Court justice on Thursday, making history in diversifying the bench.
   
• A man charged with posing as a federal agent claimed connections to Pakistan’s intelligence agency and had visas from Pakistan and Iran, a federal prosecutor told a judge Thursday, calling for the continued detention of the man and his alleged associate a day after their arrest in Washington.

Behind the fight over whether Russia should be allowed to pay off its debts is an age-old issue: Borrowers, even in times of war, want to keep their reputations for making investors whole.

The U.S. Treasury Department this week blocked Russia from paying off a bond it had due on Monday by denying a sanctions waiver to JPMorgan Chase & Co. to process the transfer. The Treasury said U.S. banks would no longer be allowed to facilitate payments, but implied Russia could find other means, possibly using non-U.S. banks.

Russia responded by saying it would pay off investors with rubles instead, delivered to accounts inside Russia. Doing so isn’t allowed under the rules of the bond, but it shows Russia’s determination not to leave bondholders completely empty-handed. Russia’s finance ministry said it considered its obligations fulfilled, though the bond has a 30-day grace period, so Russia has time to switch the payments to dollars.

• Missile Attack Kills More Than 30 at Railway Station in Eastern Ukraine
• Superyachts and Suitcases Full of Cash: Russians Move to Turkey
• Belarusians, Russians Join Ukraine's Military
• Russian Tech Spending Declines as Sanctions Take Toll

• As more companies report greenhouse gas emissions, the standards they follow are coming under sharper scrutiny amid criticism that they make the companies seem greener than they are.
   
• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said Thursday that the central bank is behind in its mission to get an “exceptionally high” rate of inflation under control, and will likely have to raise rates fairly aggressively to get price pressures back under control.
   
• Manufacturers are struggling to keep some of their China operations going as extended and widening Covid-19 lockdowns choke off supplies and clog up truck routes and ports, heaping more pressure on the stretched global supply chain.
   
• As many as four Americans were injured after shelling at a base used by U.S. forces in Syria, while a rocket attack hit an oil field in Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.
   
• At least two people were killed and several others seriously injured after at least one gunman opened fire in central Tel Aviv, in what appears to be Israel’s fourth terrorist attack in the past few weeks.
   
• South Korea’s incoming president, who has promised to take a tougher stance on North Korea, hasn’t taken office yet. The tone between Seoul and Pyongyang is already getting more adversarial.

Discovery Inc. Chief Executive David Zaslav will remove executive layers and take direct oversight of key creative and news operations upon the company’s merger with AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia, which is set to create a sprawling media conglomerate.

As it prepares to close the deal as early as Friday, Discovery said Thursday that some of Mr. Zaslav’s top lieutenants will have roles overseeing revenue, streaming and most of the WarnerMedia cable networks.

• Richard Liu, the founder of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com Inc., stepped down as chief executive officer on Thursday, making him the latest technology-sector billionaire to leave his post amid Beijing’s tougher regulatory environment.

Miami is the first U.S. city to earn revenue from a city-branded cryptocurrency project, getting about $5.25 million from the launch of “MiamiCoin.”

Buyers of the digital token have had a rockier experience: MiamiCoin’s value has fallen by half since it made its debut last summer.

The mining of municipal-linked coins is an early experiment blending the chronically cash-strapped bureaucracy of local governments with the cash-flush world of crypto. Proponents such as Miami Mayor Francis Suarez —whose city is hosting a bitcoin conference this weekend billed as the nation’s largest—imagine a future in which municipal coins become nearly ubiquitous.

• Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk delivered the company’s first made-in-Texas vehicles, saying the company was entering a new phase and teasing coming products including a dedicated robotaxi.
   
• Amazon.com Inc. plans to appeal its loss last week against union organizers in New York, where workers voted to establish the company’s first U.S. union.

Send comments to the Risk & Compliance editor, David Smagalla, at david.smagalla@wsj.com

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