On the heels of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order of Russian troops into two separatist pro-Moscow regions in eastern Ukraine, President Biden announced a new round of sanctions against Russia.
“I’m announcing the first tranche of sanctions to impose costs on Russia in response to their actions yesterday,” Biden said in remarks from the White House. “These have been closely coordinated with our allies and partners and we’ll continue to escalate sanctions if Russia escalates.”
Here are the sanctions as detailed by Biden:
- “We’re implementing full blocking sanctions on two large Russian financial institutions: VEB and their military bank.”
- “We’re implementing comprehensive sanctions on Russia’s sovereign debt. That means we’ve cut off Russia’s government from Western financing. It can no longer raise money from the West and can not trade in its new debt on our markets or European markets either.”
- “We’ll also impose sanctions on Russia’s elites and their family members. They share in the corrupt gains of the Kremlin policies and should share in the pain as well.”
- “We’ve worked with Germany to ensure that Nord Stream 2 will not … move forward.”
Biden also noted that if Russia “continues its aggression,” additional sanctions could follow.
The US President pledged his administration was using “every tool at our disposal” to limit the effect of sanctions against Russia on domestic gas prices, acknowledging that Americans will likely see rising prices at the pump in the coming months.
“As I said last week, defending freedom will have costs, for us as well and here at home,” Biden said. “We need to be honest about that. But as we do this, I’m going to take robust action to make sure the pain of our sanctions is targeted at the Russian economy, not ours.”
Moving forward, Biden said the administration is “closely monitoring energy supplies for any disruption.”
Last week, Biden signaled Americans should expect to see rising prices in the event of further sanctions against Russia, currently the second-largest oil producer in the world. JPMorgan has warned of $120 or even $150 per barrel of crude oil if Russian exports are disrupted. The current price is less than $100 per barrel.
