US Expands Sanctions Against Big Russian Banks and Oligarchs

US President Joe Biden announced sanctions against four large Russian financial entities, including VTB, the country’s second largest bank, as well as new economic punishments against oligarchs close to the Kremlin, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“This means that all of your assets are in the United States. they will be frozen. We are going to curb Russia’s ability to finance itself”, remarked Biden, who highlighted the importance of international coordination in economic measures against Moscow, during a speech from the Casa Banca.

In addition to the VTB, the assets of the banks Sberbank, Otkritie and Sovcombank were also blocked, according to the Treasury Department in a statement.

However, Biden avoided excluding Russia from the Swift international banking data system, one of the measures that was being considered for being considered one of the forceful ones, by ensuring that “is not the position that the rest of Europe wants to take”.

The United States did announce additional measures such as restrictions on high-tech exports to Russia and the expansion of sanctions on the oligarch elite close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Those sanctioned include Alexander Vedyakhin, deputy director of Sberbank; Andrey Puchkov and Yuriy Soloviev, senior officials of the VTB bank, and Soloviev’s wife, Galina Ulyutina.

As a consequence, the transactions of these persons and entities with US financial institutions are prohibited and the assets they may have under US jurisdiction are frozen.

Minutes after Biden’s intervention, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stressed in a note that these unprecedented measures “will significantly damage the Kremlin’s ability to use the Russian economy to advance its nefarious activities”.

After months of tensions, Russia has launched a military operation in Ukraine in recent hours with bombings in several urban centers, which has led the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, to declare martial law throughout the country and break diplomatic relations with Moscow.

The fighting has already cost the lives of 40 Ukrainian soldiers, has destroyed 74 Ukrainian military installations and has caused the displacement of thousands of people fleeing to western Ukraine or to the neighboring countries of Hungary and Moldova.