Following Vladimir Putin’s recognition of the independence of separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, Westerners have announced the first sanctions against Russia.
The United States on Tuesday indicated that it would launch an offensive on three fronts: Russia’s sovereign debt, financing military spending and oligarchy close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Together with our allies, we have cut off the Russian government, the Russian central bank and Russia’s sovereign property funds from all new funds from the United States and Europe,” said Tlanip Singh, deputy national security adviser to the House.
The ruble is a measure that can weigh in and increase the price to Russian consumers of imported goods.
Russian banks and Putin’s relatives were targeted
Two Russian public sector banks, Vnesheconombank (VEB) and Promsvyazbank (PSB), were also targeted. According to Talip Singh, the first is the Kremlin ‘”bill” and the second is described by the Treasury as “important for the defense sector”. “These banks will no longer be able to transact with the US or Europe (…) and their assets in our respective financial institutions will be frozen,” Taleep Singh declared.
Washington is targeting five relatives of President Vladimir Putin and their families whose assets in the United States have been frozen and excluded from the US financial system.
The United States has the potential to impose additional sanctions “that will have a serious and lasting impact on the Russian economy.” This could be the goal of the entire Russian banking sector, excluding Russia from the international Swift system (necessary for international banking transactions) or stopping the flow of high-US technology to Russia.
In response, Russia on Wednesday promised a “strong” and “painful” response to US sanctions. “There can be no doubt: there will be a strong response to sanctions, not necessarily symmetrical, but well-calculated and painful for the US side,” the Russian Foreign Ministry promised in a statement.
Targets EU Duma representatives
The European Union (EU) has approved a “set of sanctions” that will take effect on Wednesday evening or Thursday. These measures, designed to do “too bad for Russia”, included the freezing of property and the visa ban on 351 Russian Duma delegates who agreed to recognize the independence of the separatist territories.
The sanctions will also target 27 individuals and entities that contribute to Ukraine’s territorial integrity, undermining or threatening its sovereignty and independence, “said diplomat Joseph Borel. Have launched a false information campaign against.
The EU is targeting “economic relations” with the two separatist regions and “the ability of the Russian government and its government to repay our debt to our financial markets and the European capital markets.”
Germany takes over the energy sector
Other countries have also imposed sanctions on Moscow. This is the case in Great Britain, Canada, Japan or Germany North Stream 2 gas pipe shut down.
These retaliatory measures are in addition to those already in place after Russia’s occupation of Crimea in 2014.
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