Biden agrees to sanctions with G7 after Russia’s attack on Ukraine

President Joe Biden met Thursday with G7 allies to agree on more sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine and will brief Americans on this crisis that will cause “catastrophic loss of life.”

After a virtual meeting behind closed doors that lasted one hour and ten minutes, the western powers of the G7 (the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States) affirmed in a statement that Russia unleashed “a serious threat to international rule-based order.

The seven industrial powers say they are “prepared to act” to minimize the consequences on world energy markets of Moscow’s attack on Ukraine and reiterated sanctions on a major oil pipeline in Russia, an energy-rich country.

Before the G7 meeting, Biden “called a meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the latest developments in Ukraine.” At 1:30 p.m. (6:30 p.m. GMT) he will address the nation.

For weeks, as Russia massed tens of thousands of troops and heavy weapons on Ukraine’s border, Biden has led the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and other European allies in trying to craft what he calls sanctions “without precedents” as a dissuasive measure.

Now that negotiations have failed, they are likely to focus on hitting Russia’s already shaky economy hard.

“The United States and its allies and partners will respond in a united and determined manner. The world will hold Russia to account,” Biden said in his first remarks Wednesday night in Washington, after Russian missiles began raining down on Ukraine.

Biden also spoke by phone with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodimir Zelensky, saying he had promised to “provide support and help to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.”

The US president noted that Zelensky had asked him to “call on world leaders to speak out clearly” against Putin’s “blatant aggression.”

On Tuesday, after Putin first announced he would send troops as “peacekeepers” to two small areas already controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, Western countries sprang into action.

The US government has joined European allies in imposing sanctions on two Russian banks, Moscow’s sovereign debt and several oligarchs, among other measures.

Isolate Russia

And on Wednesday, when Russian troops were clearly poised to attack, Biden announced that he would impose sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which links Germany and Russia.

Germany had announced that it would block the opening of the pipeline for natural gas, which is still not working.

According to senior US officials, the new, tougher sanctions will include bigger banks, more oligarchs close to Putin and, most importantly, a ban on exports to Russia of high-tech equipment and components.

It is not clear how many of these measures will be announced on Thursday.

German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck signaled on Thursday that there will be a “strong sanctions package” that will “insulate the Russian economy from industrial progress, target and freeze financial assets and holdings, and drastically limit access to European and US markets.”

“No Russian financial institution is safe,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said Wednesday, hours before the invasion was launched.

Some measures may have economic consequences for Western countries and jeopardize the recovery of the world economy after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stock markets are already falling and oil prices have passed the $100 a barrel mark.

Among the most controversial sanctions would be a direct targeting of Putin, who is said to have amassed a vast fortune during his two decades at the helm of Russia.

Arguably the most significant sanction would be to cut Moscow off from the SWIFT international banking network. This would, at least for some time, disconnect Russia from basic trade, greatly disrupting the economy, but also potentially have considerable repercussions on the broader US-led financial system.

Zelensky directly called for Moscow to be taken out of SWIFT.