US President Joe Biden announced ‘the first tranche of sanctions to impose costs on Russia in response to their actions’ in Ukraine. In an address from the White House, the Democrat described Russia President Vladimir Putin’s moves as the beginning of an invasion. He promised that more sanctions would be coming if Putin proceeds further.
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Biden said he was also moving additional U.S. troops to the Baltic states on NATO’s eastern flank bordering Russia. He added that the US would impose “full blocking” on two large Russian financial institutions and “comprehensive sanctions” on Russian debt.
“That means we’ve cut off Russia’s government from Western finance,” Biden said. “It can no longer raise money from the West and cannot trade in its new debt on our markets or European markets either.”
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Here is a list of the sanctions announced 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.”
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Earlier, Putin had laid out three conditions to end the crisis that has threatened to plunge Europe back into war. He said the crisis could be resolved if Kyiv recognizes Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, renounces its bid to join NATO and partially demilitarizes. The West has decried the annexation of Crimea as a violation of international law and has previously flatly rejected permanently barring Ukraine from NATO.
With inputs from the Associated Press