Amazon's Crimea Fine

From the MT:

“U.S. Fines Amazon for Crimea Orders”

The U.S. has fined Amazon for providing goods and services to individuals in Crimea, in violation of U.S. sanctions which prohibit firms from operating on the annexed peninsula. The technology giant was also found to have sold goods to customers based in Iran and Syria, processed orders to people located or employed by embassies of Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria, and sold items to individuals sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC). In total, Amazon was fined $134,523 for the violations, which occurred between 2011 and 2018. Businesses face hefty penalties for operating on the Crimean peninsula, following its annexation by Russia in 2014 — a move deemed illegal by much of the international community and which resulted in the U.S., EU and other western countries placing stringent sanctions on Russia and barring firms from being active or investing on the peninsula. Amazon said shoppers had been able to get round its automatic sanctions screening software by putting spelling errors in their addresses, such as “Krimea.” Amazon also processed orders where customers put their city and region as “Yalta,” as Amazon’s system didn’t realize the city was in Crimea. The fine amounts to 50% of the value of goods sold in violation of the various sanctions regimes. OFAC determined that since Amazon voluntarily disclosed the violations, and that they were deemed “non-egregious,” often for low-value goods, it would refrain from a steeper penalty. On paper, the violations carried a potential maximum fine of more than $1 billion. In its decision issued Wednesday, OFAC said the case should prompt other large multinational tech companies and e-commerce platforms to ensure their sanctions compliance is “commensurate with the speed and scale of their business operations” — in particular, by being able to weed out common misspellings or transliterations of names and cities which Amazon’s automatic software did not catch.

^ 6 years after Russia invaded, occupied and illegally annexed Crimea you would think International Companies like Amazon would know better. The United Nations does not recognize Crimea as being Russian. It recognizes Crimea as Ukrainian. The United States, the European Union, the UK, Canada, Japan, Australia and many other countries around the world have had International Sanctions against Russia and another Country or Individual that has any dealings inside occupied Crimea. Russia and Ukraine had International Treaties and Agreements with itself with respect to their two countries (including Crimea):  1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances , 1997 Partition Treaty on the Status and Conditions of the Black Sea Fleet , 1997 Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership Between the Russian Federation and Ukraine , 2003 Treaty Between the Russian Federation and Ukraine on Cooperation in the Use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait and the 2010 Kharkiv Pact. Russia not only violated International Laws and it’s International Treaties and Agreements when it invaded and annexed Crimea in 2014, but it also violated Russian Laws. While the people living in annexed Crimea continue to suffer because of the actions of Putin the Russians living in Russia also continue to suffer from his actions. It is thanks to the International Sanctions and the punishments and fines associated with them that Putin and the ordinary Russians are reminded daily of their illegal actions on innocent men, women and children in Crimea, Ukraine. While Putin no longer has the strong support of the Russian people he continues to stay in power (and has recently extended his “legal” right to remain President) because Russians would rather have a Dictator they know then a Dictator they don’t. That was been part of the Russian mentality in Czarist Times, in Soviet Times and continues today. Some people may say that 6 years have passed since Russian illegally-annexed Crimea and that we should simply forget about it and move on. That is just plain dumb. The Soviet Union illegally-annexed Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia from 1940-1990 (50 years) and finally admitted their mistake in 1990 and allowed those countries to leave the USSR and regain their independence. The United States and many other countries never acknowledged the Soviet Annexation of the Baltics and so whether it has been 6 years or 50 years doesn’t matter. Until Crimea is returned to Ukraine and the Russians stop fighting the Donbas (eastern Ukraine) the International Sanctions against Russia should be continued. ^

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/07/09/us-fines-amazon-for-crimea-orders-a70831