Biden blocks Russian ships from US ports
Russian vessels are blocked, with effect from 28 April, from docking at US ports, following a Proclamation issued by President Biden, 21 April, under which the US president authorises ‘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.’
The proclamation reads: ‘
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)).’
