(Washington) The United States will announce new sanctions against Russia on Friday, targeting more than 500 entities linked “to its support and its war machine,” a spokesperson for the United States told AFP on Thursday. US Department of the Treasury.
“This will be the largest tranche since the start of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine”, just two years ago, on February 24, 2022, she said.
These sanctions will be taken by both the Treasury Department and the State Department, this Treasury spokesperson emphasized.
The arrival of new, “major” sanctions against Russia on Friday had already been announced by the White House earlier in the day.
They also come in response to the death of Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny, whose widow and daughter Joe Biden met on Thursday in San Francisco.
The American president accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being “responsible” for his death, announced on February 16.
“We already have sanctions, but we are considering additional ones,” Joe Biden had already said on Monday, in response to a journalist’s question.
Americans and Europeans have already, since the outbreak of war, taken numerous sanctions against Russia, blocking the assets in the United States of the targeted people and entities and preventing them from any trade within allied countries. The assets of the Russian Central Bank are also frozen there.
Reduced oil revenues
The countries of a coalition bringing together the G7, the European Union (EU) and Australia have also put in place a system of capping the prices of Russian oil.
This had the effect of reducing by a third the revenue that Russia earned in 2023 from the export of oil and petroleum products, compared to 2022, according to the coalition countries.
Sanctions and announcements have multiplied in recent days, as the second anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine approaches.
EU countries thus agreed on Wednesday on a 13e package of sanctions, while the United Kingdom unveiled measures on Thursday against more than 50 personalities and companies, also announcing new deliveries of missiles to the Ukrainians.
French President Emmanuel Macron will organize a meeting in Paris on Monday in support of Ukraine with several heads of state and government or their ministerial representatives.
On the United States side, the Department of Justice announced indictments of Russian oligarchs on Thursday.
On the other hand, American financial aid remains blocked in Congress.
The Biden administration, in fact, regularly assures Ukraine of its support. But, if the Senate, with a Democratic majority, has approved a new envelope including $60 billion in military assistance for Ukraine, Republicans close to Donald Trump are now blocking it in the House of Representatives.