WASHINGTON — America will impose a slate of sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin and Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov, the White Home introduced Friday.
The UK and the European Union had introduced comparable sanctions earlier within the day.
Putin and Lavrov be part of a rising listing of elite Russian authorities officers the U.S. has sanctioned in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
Twice this week, america has introduced new sanctions towards Russia’s largest banks and its sovereign debt, chopping them off from the U.S. banking system.
Russia launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on Wednesday, sending tens of 1000’s of Russian troops into dozens of Ukrainian cities with the obvious intention of capturing Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.
Within the weeks main as much as the invasion, the Biden administration mentioned the specter of extreme sanctions was meant to function a deterrent to Putin.
However that technique failed this week, and since then the White Home has shifted its message to give attention to the punitive impression of sanctions.
It is unclear how a lot might be achieved by sanctioning Putin individually, nonetheless.
Putin publicly claims his wage of roughly $140,000 is his solely supply of revenue and lists his belongings as two residences and some automobiles.
In actuality, Putin lives in a palatial house bigger than Buckingham Palace and has been photographed repeatedly carrying watches that price lots of of 1000’s of {dollars}.
Consultants and former Kremlin insiders consider Putin is value billions of {dollars} and that he makes use of the worldwide shadow banking system to cover his cash.
Putin additionally seems to manage belongings in Europe, based on the Pandora Papers investigation, printed in October 2021. The leaked paperwork revealed a $4.1 million condo in Monaco that was owned by a Russian lady who didn’t have any obvious supply of revenue however who had been romantically linked to Putin for years.
That very same lady, Svetlana Krivonogikh, was additionally listed in 2010 because the registered proprietor of a shell firm that was one of many main shareholders in a Russian state-linked financial institution sanctioned by america in 2014.
The sanctions towards Putin might be welcome information to Ukrainian diplomats in america.
Ukraine’s Ambassador to america Oksana Markarova mentioned Friday that sanctions towards Putin “can be the suitable factor.”
Markarova, who’s the previous minister of finance, welcomed the European Union’s resolution to sanction Putin and Lavrov.
Markarova additionally mentioned that Kyiv was grateful for the sanctions introduced Thursday by the Biden administration.
“I used to be very blissful to see the sanctions towards main Russian banks. I used to be very blissful to see their export controls, I used to be very blissful to see the non-public sanctions,” she instructed reporters Friday on the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington.
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