new York US President Joe Biden announced further sanctions against Russia this Thursday evening. This would cut off five major banks from the international financial markets, which collectively have more than $1 trillion in assets. Among them are the two largest financial institutions: VTB and Sberbank.
The United States also added other wealthy Russians with connections to Putin to the sanctions list. “The sanctions will be just as devastating as tanks and ammunition in Ukraine,” said Biden with conviction.
However, the US President refrained from excluding Russian financial institutions from the Swift payment system. The sanctions imposed are “worse” than a Swift ban. Biden also refrained from imposing sanctions on Russia’s energy industry on Thursday. However, he prepared the Americans for further increases in gasoline prices and suggested that Washington could again liquidate strategic oil reserves to compensate for rising oil prices. Gas station prices are an important factor for the congressional elections coming up in November.
Biden advocated patience: “It takes time for the sanctions to take effect,” he said. The US did not assume that the sanctions would stop Putin. “But they will significantly weaken his country, so he will have to make very difficult decisions,” said Biden. Sanctions against Putin personally “are a possibility”. However, he left open why Putin will not be sanctioned on Thursday.
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Great Britain, Switzerland and Canada had previously passed sanctions. The heads of state of the EU states are still discussing what sanctions they will impose on Russia.
The US has also imposed sanctions on Belarus, which was involved in the Ukraine war. The US Treasury Department has sought coercive measures “against 24 Belarusian individuals and entities for Russia’s support of the invasion,” it said in a statement. The sanctions focused on the country’s defense sector and banks, which had particularly close ties with Moscow. They targeted almost a fifth of Belarus’ financial sector, as well as influential figures in the defense industry. The US has repeatedly imposed sanctions on Belarus for the repression of civil society and the democratic opposition.
Biden: “NATO more united and determined than ever”
There was a “complete break” in US-Russia relations. “This is a dangerous moment for Europe,” Biden warned.
He also ordered on Thursday to station more troops in Germany. “Now I authorize the deployment of additional US forces to Germany as part of the NATO response.” A US Defense Department insider speaks of a total of 7,000 soldiers, reports the Reuters news agency.
The West is more united than ever before to take action against Russia’s aggression. “The good news is that NATO was more united and determined than ever,” said the US President. There is no doubt that all NATO allies will fulfill their obligations under Article 5, “which states that an attack on one is an attack on all”. There will be another NATO summit on Friday.
Biden is also introducing export controls. Russia is to be cut off from access to semiconductors and other technology goods that are important for the military, aviation and biotech industries, among others. He also warned Russia against cyberattacks against the US. Should that happen, “then we are ready to react,” Biden clarified. The US President would also be presented with options that would allow the US itself to use cyber weapons against Russia. This was reported by the US television network NBC.
More on the Ukraine War
These include restricting Internet connections in Russia and disrupting railway switches. That could limit Russia’s ability to send goods to the border with Ukraine. Should Biden choose to do so, it would be the first time the US government has resorted to cyberattacks.
However, Charles Kupchan, of the think tank Council on Foreign Relations, warned that such a move could provoke strong countermeasures from Russia.
Biden also sees Russia’s war in Ukraine as just a first step by President Vladimir Putin: “He has much bigger ambitions in Ukraine. He wants to restore the former Soviet Union. That’s what this is about.”
Kupchan believes that Putin overestimated the unity of the West, which could later prove fatal for the Russian president. However, the crisis could last for a while. “We have to prepare for a kind of Cold War 2.0.”
With agency material
More: Russia starts war in Ukraine – the situation in the evening