The United States will announce new sanctions on Russia on Wednesday in coordination with the G7 and the European Union, according to a US government official.
The official said the comprehensive package “will impose significant costs on Russia and take it further down the path of economic, financial and technological isolation.”
The new sanctions package will:
- Ban all new investments in Russia;
- Increase sanctions against financial institutions and state-owned companies in Russia;
- Sanction Russian government officials and their families.
The new sanctions package will mark the latest escalation in efforts by the US and its allies to impose costs on Russia for its invasion and, over time, cut off critical economic sectors the country uses to wage the ongoing war.
The new measures also follow fresh revelations of other atrocities committed by Russian forces in northern Ukraine, with images of the atrocities committed in Bucha serving as an accelerator of ongoing discussions between the US and its European allies to increase economic costs, officials said.
“These measures will degrade the main instruments of Russian state power, inflict acute and immediate economic damage on Russia, and hold Russian kleptocracy that finance and support Putin’s war accountable,” the official said. “These steps will be taken in concert with our allies and partners, demonstrating our determination and unity in imposing unprecedented costs on Russia for its war against Ukraine.”
The official added: “We had already concluded that Russia committed war crimes in Ukraine, and the information from Bucha appears to show more evidence of war crimes. And as the president [Joe Biden] said, we will work with the world to ensure that there is full accountability for these crimes. One of those tools is sanctions – and we have been working intensively with our European allies on new sanctions.”
The expected sanctions come after the US Treasury announced that it will no longer allow Russia to repay its debt using dollars stored in US banks.
While Washington imposed sanctions on the Central Bank of Russia, freezing its foreign currency in US banks, the Treasury Department had already allowed Russia to use these reserves to pay off its debt.
It’s a move that officials say will substantially increase the risk of default and undermine the central bank’s urgent efforts to stem the economic bleeding that immediately crippled the Russian economy after the Western response to the invasion.
Source: CNN Brasil
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