The USA package
In Thursday’s address to the nation, US President Joe Biden outlined the American response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Sanctions on four other Russian state banks (worth one trillion dollars), including the giant Vtb, and halving the export of technological material to Russia. Among the new US sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine there are also restrictions on lending on the American market for thirteen Russian companies and entities, including banks, energy and transport companies: Sberbank, AlfaBank, Credit Bank of Moscow, Otkritie, Novikom and Sovcom, Gazprombank, Russian Agricultural Bank, Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, Transneft, Rostelecom, RusHydro, Alrosa, Sovcomflot, Russian Railway.
The powerful neighbors of Putin are affected
Also affected were some prominent members of Putin’s powerful circle and their families. Among them the powerful head of Rosneft Igor Sechin, and his son Ivan (manager of the same company), the former defense minister Serghiei Ivanov, Kremlin envoy for transport and the environment, his son Serghiei (president and CEO of Alrosa ), the Secretary of the National Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, together with his son Andrei (manager of Gazprom Neft), Andrei Puchkov and Yuri Soloviev (managers of Vtb bank), Alexander Aleksandrovich Vedyakhin, first deputy chairman of Sberbank. The US also targeted 24 Belarusian people and organizations for their support for the Russian invasion. However, the American president does not unleash the most feared weapons, even though he still leaves them “on the table”: personal sanctions against Putin himself and the exclusion of Moscow from the Swift circuit of international transactions.
The US had already launched a series of gradual measures, from the ban on economic activities in the Donbass to sanctions against two banks, sovereign debt and some members of the Russian elite, before also targeting the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, hitting one of the key Kremlin projects to strengthen Europe’s energy hold.
Swift can wait
As for Swift, Biden said in his speech to the nation that “it is always an option but now the rest of Europe is not willing to make this decision.” Britain froze the assets of all major Russian banks, including the second largest VTB bank. All the major Russian companies will not be able to raise financing on the UK markets and the same ban on the Russian state which will not be able to operate on the British markets.
Japan and South Korea
Japan has announced further sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, targeting the financial sector and the export of electronic components to Russia. South Korea will also join international sanctions against Russia, but rules out the imposition of unilateral restrictive measures. This was announced by Park Soo-hyun, a senior official of the Presidential Office in Seoul, in the aftermath of the condemnation and regret expressed by President Moon Jae-in against the invasion of Ukraine. “It is not an era in which we can do something independently,” Park said in an interview with TBS, explaining that “if the United States and European countries impose sanctions on Russia, we will naturally join them because we are connected” .
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