Britain Imposed a Record Fine for Violating Anti-Russian Sanctions

British authorities fined a division of Sabre, a U.S.-based ticket booking and reservation company, more than £1 million ($1.3 million) for violating sanctions against Russia. The aggregator continued to work with the Russian airline Ural Airlines after sanctions were imposed in 2022.

This is the largest fine imposed by the UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) since sanctions against Russia were first imposed, the regulator said.

Sabre, a provider of airline reservation and ticketing systems, continued to grant the Russian airline Ural Airlines access to its global ticketing system for seven months after sanctions were imposed in 2022, the OFSI explains. According to the regulator, after payments from Ural Airlines via a British bank were blocked due to sanctions restrictions, Sabre employees began looking for alternative ways to receive funds. Specifically, the company proposed that the carrier make a test payment through a bank account outside the UK, with the intention of using this arrangement for future transactions. OFSI deemed these actions an attempt to circumvent sanctions.

"This decision underscores the UK's increasingly strict approach to ensuring compliance with the sanctions regime against Russia in support of Ukraine and offers important lessons for businesses in the area of compliance," the regulator's press release states.

Sabre said it had voluntarily notified the authorities of the violation. “The company voluntarily disclosed information regarding this matter and cooperated fully with the regulator. We take our legal and ethical obligations seriously,” Bloomberg quoted the company as saying.

In recent months, the United Kingdom has stepped up its efforts to combat sanctions evasion. In May, British authorities imposed restrictions on the cryptocurrency platform HTX, accusing it of participating in an infrastructure that helped Russia circumvent sanctions, Bloomberg reports. That same month, Deutsche Bank’s UK branch was fined £165,000 ($221,000) for processing payments to the Russian online movie theater Okko, which is linked to a sanctioned entity. Apple’s European division was also fined £390,000 (about $516,000) in March 2026 for a transfer to this streaming service.

According to Sayed Rahman, a partner at the law firm Rahman Ravelli, as quoted by Reuters, the British regulator’s decision serves as a warning to companies in the software, data, tourism, and aviation sectors, as sanctions risks are not limited to bank accounts.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor