U.S. warns Russia of 'severe price', sanctions more politicians and oligarchs

The U.S. on Friday announced additional sanctions against Kremlin elites, their family members, and oligarchs who are deemed to support Vladimir Putin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

The new wave of sanctions is part of a larger strategy aimed at crippling the Russian economy and leaders who have enabled the Kremlin’s war, TURAN’s Washington correspondent reports.

Those targeted include 12 Russian parliamentarians who lobbied for Putin's recognition of two separatist “republics”, including the speaker of the Duma Vyacheslav Volodin who is also a permanent member of Russia’s Security Council, as well as 3 family members of Putin's spokesperson (Peskov’s wife Tatiana Navka, and their 2 adult children, Nikolay and Elizaveta), billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, and the management board (10 people) of the sanctioned VTB Bank, the second-largest lender in Russia.

The latest sanctions came just hours after President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. and allies would revoke Russia's 'most-favored nation' trade status in another blow to the Russian economy. The White House wants to work with Congress to impose Cold War-era trade restrictions on Russia for its invasion.

In a joint statement Friday afternoon, the U.S. and G7 member allies announced that they will deny Russia from a favored nation status.

Removing “permanent normal trade relations,” (PNTR) with Russia “is going to make it harder for Russia to do business with the U.S. and doing it in unison with other nations that make up half of the global economy will be another crushing blow to the Russian economy” Biden said at a White House event. “It’s already suffering very badly from our sanctions”

U.S. Congress is expected to vote on repealing PNTR as early as next week.

Putin “doesn’t get to tear down the international order, brutalize the Ukrainian people with his unjust war and then benefit from normal trade relations,” Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden told reporters.

Biden also announced in his speech that he was banning imports of Russian seafood, vodka and diamonds, which White House officials said collectively totaled more than $1 billion.

The U.S. Commerce Department also moved Friday to cut off Russia’s access to luxury goods, imposing restrictions on the export and reexport of American-made booze, jewelry, vehicles and clothing to all consumers in both Russia and neighboring Belarus.

The U.S. export value of the products covered by today’s luxury goods restrictions is nearly $550 million per year.

“The elites who sustain Putin’s war machine should no longer be able to reap the gains of this system and squander the resources of the Russian people” White House said in a fact sheet.

G7 Leaders’ announcements also include denying borrowing privileges at multilateral financial institutions, meaning that they will agree to ensure Russia cannot obtain financing from the leading multilateral financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

“Russia cannot grossly violate international law and expect to benefit from being part of the international economic order” White House said.

Speaking to reporters, Biden also warned on Friday that Russia would pay a ‘severe price’ if it launched a chemical weapons attack during its invasion of Ukraine.

“I’m not going to speak about the intelligence … but Russia would pay a severe price if they use chemical weapons,” Biden said when asked if the U.S. would have a military response if Putin launched such an attack.

Washington officials have raised alarms about the threat that Russia will escalate its war on Ukraine with chemical weapons and have raised the prospect that Russia is laying the foundation for such an attack.

Biden also stressed that the U.S. and NATO allies “would not fight Russia in Ukraine”, describing such a scenario as "World War III."

“But we have a sacred obligation on NATO territory - a sacred obligation - Article 5" he reminded.

"Putin’s war against Ukraine is never going to be a victory.” - Biden added,

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.

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