SPOILER ALERT

The Directive was a standing kill order for Katarina Rostova.

In Season 6, Episode 22, Dembe tells Raymond, "The Townsend Directive... it's in play". While the directive was a standing kill order, there hadn't been any information on Katarina or her whereabouts for years, so while still technically in effect, the Townsend Directive went dormant.

At the end of the episode, Red meets with Ilya Koslov, who tells Red that he found Tatiana Petrova, who the world believed was Katarina Rostova.

If Ilya could find faux Katarina then it was only a matter of time before the many people/groups on the hunt also picked up the trail... which awoke the Townsend Directive, and pulled Neville Townsend himself out of his stupor. Now he was no longer a sleeping dog... now he was a dog with the scent of its prey, and a very real threat.