United States: Two years after Russia invaded Ukraine, the US government will impose more than 500 sanctions against Russia, its suppliers and its war machine, a Treasury Department representative reported.
According to officials, the sanctions will contain additional efforts planned to punish the Kremlin for its role in the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
In San Francisco, President Joe Biden met with Navalny’s widow and daughter and previewed the move, saying sanctions would be brought against Putin. A high-level State Department official has described the coming sanctions as “crushing.”
Speaking at an event in Washington, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland commented that, “Some of them will be targeted at folks directly involved in Navalny’s death. The vast majority of them though are designed to further attrite Putin’s war machine, to close the gaps in the sanctions regime that he has been able to evade.”
Officials familiar with the plans say that many of the measures target Russia’s defence sector, including facilities that have already been sanctioned by the US. “Those imposed as punishment for Navalny’s death in a remote Russian prisoner are expected to target individuals thought to have played a part in his detention and demise,” administrators added.
During the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the United States has been working to undermine Russia’s military capabilities, impose economic sanctions, limit its access to crucial technologies for its defence industry, lessen the value of its exports, and isolate Russia from the global banking system.
Russia’s economy has managed to grow steadily over the past two years due to the country’s constant trade associations with China and India. The Kremlin has been able to preserve its military arsenal by containing some of its weapons from Iran and North Korea, despite heavy sanctions imposed on both countries by the West.
“Vladimir Putin and his tricksters have found a lot of ways to evade sanctions. That is why when you see this package that we’re going to launch in a couple days, it is very heavily focused on evasion, on nodes and networks and countries that help evade, willingly or otherwise and on the banks that support and allow that kind of evasion,” Nuland admitted.
Further Nuland indicated that the government would charge other penalties in the future related to Navalny’s death. “I anticipate as time goes on we will be able to put forward more and more sanctions on folks directly responsible for Navalny’s death,” she remarked. The UK has declared its sanctions against six Russian administrators.
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