Biden administration imposes new sanctions on Russian banking institutions and Putin’s daughters
The US is taking additional actions to increase economic pressure on Russia and President Vladimir Putin after Terrifying images from the Ukrainian city of Buchanotification new sanctions Fourth on Russian financial institutions, as well as a number of people, including the adult daughters of Putin and the wife and daughter of his foreign minister.
“Today, we are significantly reducing the financial shock by imposing full containment sanctions on Russia’s largest financial institution, Sberbank and its largest private bank, Alfa Bank,” a senior administration official briefed on the report said.
Sberbank holds almost a third of all assets in Russia’s banking sector, the official said, adding that the US has now completely blocked “more than two-thirds of Russia’s banking sector”.
Second, the senior official announced, “In keeping with the G7 and the EU, we are announcing a new investment ban in Russia.” That will be done with an executive order signed by US President Joe Biden.
The administration is also imposing outright containment sanctions on a new batch of Russian elites and their family members, including Putin’s adult daughters Mariya Putina and Katerina Tikhonova, wife and daughter of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and members of Russia’s Security Council, including the former President and Prime Minister. of Russia Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. The US has sanctioned more than 140 oligarchs and their family members and more than 400 Russian government officials, the senior official said.
The US will also impose outright containment sanctions on key Russian state-owned enterprises, which will be announced by the Treasury Department on Thursday. The official also noted Tuesday’s announcement that the Treasury Department had blocked Russia from paying its reserve dollar liabilities at US banks.
The senior official noted the crippling impact of US measures on the Russian economy since the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Russia’s GDP is forecast to shrink by double digits this year… The country is not in the process of being isolated as a pariah country. This year’s economic shock alone is forecast by the IMF (International Monetary Fund) to wipe out the economic performance of the past 15 years,” the official said.
Pressed about the effectiveness of sanctions in ending Putin’s war in Ukraine, the senior official sought to underline the effect they are having on life in Russia and says that Putin ultimately will have to take into account its own people.
“Even an autocrat like Putin has a social contract with the Russian people. He took away their freedom in exchange for the promised stability and so he did not give them stability,” the official said.
“The question really isn’t so much: What can we do and when will it work? I think it is: What is the end game here for Putin? What does he play for? ” added the official. “This is clearly becoming a setback for him and at some point he’s going to have to realize that fact.”
