প্রকাশ: 23/02/2022
President
Joe Biden said on Tuesday the United States was imposing a first
tranche of sanctions against Russia for launching
an invasion of Ukraine and promised that more would come
if there are further incursions.
Biden, speaking to reporters at the White House, said
the United States would impose sanctions against two
large Russian financial
institutions and Russian sovereign
debt. Sanctions were imposed against Russian elites and their
family members as well, administration officials said.
President Vladimir Putin on Monday told Russia's defense
ministry to deploy what he called peacekeeping forces into two
breakaway regions of Ukraine after recognizing them as independent,
raising fears of imminent war in Europe.
"This is the beginning of
a Russian invasion of Ukraine," Biden said.
"Russia has now undeniably moved against Ukraine by
declaring these independent states."
The United States had promised
severe sanctions against Russia if it invaded Ukraine, which
the White House previously defined as any movement of troops across
the border.
The United States deployed its most powerful
sanctioning tool,
placing Russian elites and two banks on
the Specially Designated Nationals list, effectively kicking them out of
the US banking system, banning them from trading with
Americans, and freezing their US assets.
Biden said the sanctions in the initial
tranche applied to VEB bank and Russia's military
bank - Promsvyazbank, which does defense deals. He said
the sanctions against Russia's sovereign debt meant
the Russian government would be cut off from Western financing.
"As Russia contemplates its next move, we have our next
move prepared as well," Biden said. "Russia will pay an
even steeper price if it continues its aggression, including
additional sanctions."
Putin did not watch Biden's speech and Russia
will first look at what the United States has outlined before
responding, according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, cited by Russian news
agencies.
Biden said the United States would continue to
provide "defensive assistance" to Ukraine but had no
intention of fighting Russia. He said he authorized
additional movements of US forces already stationed in Europe to strengthen
Baltic allies Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Biden, who is facing concerns at home about
inflation and high energy prices, said his administration was closely
monitoring energy supplies for disruptions and working on a
"collective investment to secure stability and global energy
supplies" with major oil producers and consumers.
"This will blunt gas prices. I want to limit
the pain the American people are feeling at the gas pump. This
is critical to me," he said.
SANCTIONS TRIGGERED
On Monday a senior administration official said Russia
sending troops to the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk
in Ukraine did not represent a further invasion because
Russia had troops there previously. But on Tuesday, White House officials
changed their language to say an invasion had begun.
Washington slapped sanctions on
VEB and Promsvyazbank Public Joint Stock Company, as well as 42 of
their subsidiaries, accusing the two banks of being
"state-owned institutions that play specific roles to prop up Russia's defense
capability and its economy."
The sanctions on the banks come on top
of designations of Russian "elites" the Treasury
Department accused of being close to Putin, including Aleksandr Bortnikov,
director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), and Petr
Fradkov, the chairman and chief executive of Promsvyazbank
Public Joint Stock Company.
Also hit with sanctions was Sergei Kiriyenko, a
former prime minister of Russia.
"They share in the corrupt gains of
the Kremlin policies and should share in the pain as
well," Biden said of Russian elites.
Brian O'Toole, a former Treasury Department official now
with the Atlantic Council, said Tuesday's sanctions will have
impact, but questioned whether it would be immediate enough.
"I think the risk they run by not going after a
big state-owned commercial bank is that Putin thinks that the West is not
going to be willing to bear the pain of big
economic sanctions, and therefore that he can safely
expand his ambitions," he said.
Russia's
Sberbank SBER.MM and VTB VTBR.MM would face
American sanctions if Moscow proceeds with
its invasion of Ukraine, a senior US administration official
told reporters.
The official also
said Russian elites not sanctioned on Tuesday should be on
notice and noted that the Biden administration was fully
prepared to implement export control measures with a large number of countries
if Russia invades further.
"Further Russian assault
into Ukraine remains a severe threat in the days
ahead," Biden said. "The United
States and our allies and partners remain open to diplomacy
if it is serious."
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