Executive Order 14024 (2021)

Executive Order 14024 is a United States emergency authority issued on 15 April 2021 concerning specified harmful foreign activities of the Government of the Russian Federation. It provides criteria for blocking persons and a platform for determinations and directives restricting transactions. After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it became a central, but not exclusive, authority for United States Russia sanctions.

Blocking authority

The order authorises designation of persons determined to operate in sectors identified by the Treasury Secretary, to engage in specified activities or to support, own, control, act for or provide assistance to covered persons. Activities named in the order include interference in elections, malicious cyber activity, transnational corruption, assassination or harm to United States persons, undermining democratic processes and violating established principles of international law.

Treasury sector determinations have expanded the fields in which a person may be designated. A sector determination does not automatically block every firm in that sector. Blocking follows a separate designation or ownership consequence. A designation is an administrative action, not a criminal conviction, and its official statement of reasons should be attributed.

Directives and amendments

Measures issued under the order include the Sovereign Debt Directive and directives restricting correspondent and payable-through accounts, processing and transactions involving specified Russian institutions or sovereign entities. Separate executive orders in the wider Russia programme, particularly Executive Order 14071, prohibit new investment in Russia and specified categories of services. Each directive or determination has its own authority, persons, conduct, effective date, definitions and licences. Those elements cannot be inferred from a programme label or from Executive Order 14024 alone.

Executive Order 14114 of 22 December 2023 amended Executive Order 14024. It authorised restrictions on foreign financial institutions determined to have conducted or facilitated significant transactions involving Russia's military-industrial base, or to have provided specified services involving designated persons. It also expanded authority over importation of specified Russian-origin products. Treasury's implementing determinations and guidance define the operative exposure.

Entity and coalition boundaries

Property of a blocked person within United States jurisdiction must be immobilised, subject to authorisation. The 50 Percent Rule can extend blocking to entities owned 50 per cent or more in aggregate by blocked persons. It does not automatically extend to every entity a blocked person manages or influences.

The United States, European Union and other partners coordinated reserve-related and financial measures in 2022, but each jurisdiction acted under its own law. Coalition estimates of immobilised Russian sovereign assets should not be attributed to Executive Order 14024 alone. Central-bank transaction restrictions, private-asset blocking and confiscation are distinct.

Strategic significance and limits

The order supports rapid escalation through sector determinations, designations and directives without a new statute for each action. That flexibility increases reach but also makes legal mapping essential. Economic contraction, payment disruption or target adaptation may reflect several authorities, allied measures and wartime conditions. Current analysis must identify the exact instrument and date rather than treating the order as the entire campaign.

See also

Executive Order 13662 (2014) · Coalition sanctions and export controls against Russia after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine (2022-present) · Russian central-bank reserve immobilisation (2022) · Secondary sanctions · Asset freeze · Financial warfare

Sources

1. Executive Order 14024, Blocking Property With Respect to Specified Harmful Foreign Activities of the Government of the Russian Federation, 15 April 2021.
2. Executive Order 14114, Taking Additional Steps With Respect to the Russian Federation's Harmful Activities, 22 December 2023.
3. Office of Foreign Assets Control, Russia-related sanctions, directives, determinations and guidance checked 30 July 2026.
4. Department of the Treasury, Updated guidance for foreign financial institutions on Russia's military-industrial base, 12 June 2024.