SANCTIONS LISTS AND WATCHLISTS EXPLAINED · GUIDEUPDATED 2026-09-04
Sanctions Lists and Watchlists Explained
New Zealand's sanctions register covers Russia only, and holds one passport number
The MFAT Russia Sanctions Register: 1,925 designations, 210 ships, trade measures and an oil price cap in a single 21 MB workbook.
New Zealand had no autonomous sanctions law until 2022. When Russia invaded Ukraine, Parliament passed the Russia Sanctions Act 2022, and the register the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade now publishes is the whole of that regime — and only that regime. UN designations reach New Zealand through separate regulations under the United Nations Act 1946; there is no New Zealand equivalent of the EU consolidated list, and this file does not pretend to be one. What it does do is unusually broad within its scope. The 21 MB workbook holds five sheets: 1,925 designations of individuals, entities, banks and assets; 210 ships each with an IMO number; 924 trade measures keyed to Harmonised System codes; a 36-line oil price cap schedule; and 18 granted exemptions. Each designation is marked against six measures — travel ban, asset freeze, aircraft ban, ship ban, service prohibition and dealing with securities — rather than being flagged as sanctioned in the abstract. The gap is identity data. Across 1,925 designations there are 1,375 dates of birth, 504 aliases, and exactly one passport number.
What this workflow covers
SCOPE- 1,925 designations on the register sheet in the workbook downloaded 4 September 2026: 1,389 individuals, 512 entities, 17 banks and 7 assets.
- Six measure columns per designation. 1,917 carry an asset freeze and 1,387 a travel ban, so a designation is not automatically a travel restriction and vice versa.
- A separate ships sheet holds 210 vessels, every one with an IMO number, sanctioned between 19 June 2025 and 20 February 2026 — the shadow-fleet tranche. Two further sheets carry 924 trade measures tied to Harmonised System chapters and codes, including a 35 percent import tariff line, and a 36-row oil price cap quoting caps in US dollars per barrel.
- Designation dates run from 18 March 2022 to 7 August 2026, and each row carries both a date of sanction and a date of additional sanction, which is how you see a designation being extended.
- Download: Russia-Sanctions-Register.xlsx from the MFAT sanctions page, about 21 MB. One file, one format, no API, no CSV. MFAT also offers an update notification sign-up.
- Identity data is the weak point: 1,375 of 1,925 designations carry a date of birth, 504 carry an alias, and a single record in the entire register carries a passport number. Matching leans almost entirely on name and date of birth.
- UN designations, terrorism listings, non-Russia programmes and ownership analysis all live elsewhere. The Regulations, not the register, define who is caught, and MFAT states that a designation notice clarifies who is already sanctioned rather than creating new sanctions.
- Bad candidates gather in the State Duma tranche, where hundreds of members were designated together with near-identical justification text and Russian names that transliterate several ways, and among the 550 designations carrying no date of birth.
- Treat a hit as an asset freeze plus a service prohibition until you have checked the six columns; then read the Regulations for the specific prohibition. New Zealand appears among the main jurisdictions on our coverage register.
Key statistics
DATA- Designations on the register, 4 September 2026
- 1,925 (1,389 individuals, 512 entities, 17 banks, 7 assets)
- Counted from Russia-Sanctions-Register.xlsx
- Ships on the register, all with IMO numbers
- 210
- Counted from Russia-Sanctions-Register.xlsx
- Passport numbers across all 1,925 designations
- 1
- Counted from Russia-Sanctions-Register.xlsx
Compliance glossary
TERMS- Russia Sanctions Act 2022
- New Zealand's first autonomous sanctions statute, passed in March 2022. It lets the Minister of Foreign Affairs designate individuals, entities, assets and services connected to the invasion of Ukraine.
- Designation notice
- The instrument by which New Zealand names a sanctioned party. MFAT publishes each notice as a PDF and states that it clarifies who is already sanctioned under the Regulations rather than imposing new measures.
- Service prohibition
- A measure barring the supply of specified services to or for the benefit of a designated party. It is one of the six measures marked per designation on the New Zealand register.
- Oil price cap
- A restriction permitting services connected to seaborne Russian oil only where the cargo is sold at or below a stated price. New Zealand publishes its cap as a schedule keyed to Harmonised System codes.
Authoritative references
SOURCES- 01Russia Sanctions Register
New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
- 02Russia sanctions
New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
- 03Overview of sanctions against Russia
New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
- 04Russia sanctions: latest updates
New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Frequently asked questions
Q&A- Does New Zealand sanction anyone other than Russia?
- Through this regime, no. The Russia Sanctions Act 2022 is New Zealand's only autonomous sanctions statute, and the register covers designations made under it, which extend to Belarus and to entities supporting the invasion. UN Security Council measures are implemented separately under the United Nations Act 1946 and are not on this register.
- Where is the New Zealand sanctions register and what format is it in?
- It is a single XLSX file, Russia-Sanctions-Register.xlsx, about 21 MB, published on the MFAT Russia sanctions pages with five sheets covering designations, ships, trade measures, the oil price cap and exemptions. There is no API, no CSV and no XML, so ingestion means parsing the workbook.
- Is the register itself the law?
- No. The Russia Sanctions Regulations 2022 are the operative instrument, and MFAT is explicit that a designation notice clarifies who or what is already sanctioned rather than creating new sanctions. The register is the practical reference; the Regulations decide the question if the two ever appear to diverge.
- How do I match against the register with so few identifiers?
- Carefully, and with the justification text. The General Rationale column usually names the person's office — a State Duma seat, a bank directorship — which is often the only discriminator available when the date of birth is missing. Treat name-only matches as candidates requiring external corroboration rather than as findings.
- Are New Zealand's ship designations useful outside New Zealand?
- Yes, as a cross-reference. All 210 ships carry IMO numbers and most belong to the Russia-linked oil trade, so they overlap with UK, EU and US shadow-fleet designations. An IMO that appears on New Zealand's sheet and nowhere else in your data is worth a second look at the vessel's ownership.
- How often does the register change?
- As designations are made, without a calendar; the most recent designation in the 4 September 2026 file was dated 7 August 2026. MFAT publishes designation notices as PDFs alongside the workbook and offers email notification when the register is updated, which is the practical way to catch changes.
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