Washington expands sanctions against Putin’s two daughters, two Russian banks

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WASHINGTON, April 6: US President Joe Biden will issue an executive order strengthening sanctions against Moscow related to its military operation in Ukraine to include the two adult daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin and two of Russia’s largest banks, the White House said on Wednesday.

The new US sanctions on Russia came as NATO foreign ministers met in the Belgian capital, Brussels, for discussions, including on how to continue supporting Ukraine and ending the fighting.

The White House said in a statement that the United States, along with the Group of Seven (G7) and the European Union, would continue to “impose severe and immediate economic costs on the Putin regime for its atrocities in Ukraine, including Bucha city,” which press and intelligence reports say the Russian military has committed war crimes there before withdrawing from it. “As part of this effort, the United States is announcing devastating economic measures to block new investments in Russia and impose the most severe financial sanctions on Russia’s two largest banks and many of its most important state-owned enterprises, and on Russian government officials and their family members,” intelligence reports added.

According to the White House, the new US sanctions include a complete ban on Sberbank, the largest financial institution owned by the Russian state, and Alpha Bank, the largest private bank in Russia. Biden’s executive order includes a complete ban on new investment in Russia “by American people, wherever that is, which will isolate Russia from the global economy. ” So that this measure is based on “the decision taken by more than 600 multinational companies to leave Russia.”

The White House indicated that the Treasury Department would issue “complete ban sanctions against major Russian state-owned companies” and announce the names of those entities on Thursday.

The executive order also includes “a complete ban on sanctions against Russian elites and their family members, including on the adult children of President Putin, the wife and daughter of Foreign Minister (Sergei) Lavrov, and members of the Russian Security Council, including former Russian President and current Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.”

The White House noted the sweeping financial sanctions in the wake of the administration’s action earlier this week “to cut off Russian funds frozen in the United States to make (Russian) debt payments.” He noted that the United States and more than 30 allies and partners worldwide have so far imposed “the most effective, coordinated, and broadest economic restrictions in history.”

Regarding the effects of sanctions on Russia, the White House said, “Experts expect Russia’s gross domestic product to shrink by up to 15 percent this year, wiping out the economic gains of the past 15 years,” adding that “inflation is already rising above 15 percent, and it is expected that is accelerating.

More than 600 private sector companies have already left the Russian market” and “supply chains in Russia are severely disrupted.” “It is highly likely that Russia will lose its position as a major economy and will continue its long slide toward economic, financial and technological isolation,” he continued.

“As long as Russia continues its brutal assault on Ukraine, we will stand united with our allies and partners in imposing additional costs on Russia for its actions,” he stressed. US Treasury escalates sanctions against Russia for its atrocities in Ukraine. For its part, the Treasury Department said in a statement that the sanctions of its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) affected 42 subsidiaries “owned or controlled by (Sberbank),” among the new sanctions imposed by the United States “in response to Russia’s ongoing brutal war against Ukraine and atrocities against Ukrainian citizens.” (KUNA)

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