Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told state news agency TASS that “Russia, as always in such cases, will not leave the aggressive actions of the United States unanswered .”
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The United States is putting pressure on financial institutions dealing with the Russian economy, with a stated objective: to suffocate the Russian war effort. Washington announced on Wednesday June 12 a new round of sanctions, this time affecting more than 300 entities, including the Moscow Stock Exchange and several of its subsidiaries and even structures involved in liquefied natural gas projects. “The measures announced today target the remaining supply routes through which [la Russie] sources materials and equipment internationally, including its reliance on essential supplies from third countries”, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was quoted as saying in a statement.
“We are increasing the risk for financial institutions that deal with Russia’s war economy, we are eliminating opportunities for evasion, and we are diminishing Russia’s ability to benefit from access to technology, equipment, software and foreign IT services”she added.
Following the announcements, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told state news agency TASS that “Russia, as always in such cases, will not leave the aggressive actions of the United States unanswered.”
The announcement of these new American sanctions comes on the eve of a G7 summit in Italy, during which will be announced “new sanctions and export limitation measures” aimed at “entities and networks helping Russia obtain what it needs for its war” against Ukraine, according to a White House spokesperson cited by AFP. The members of the G7 will thus discuss “China’s support for the Russian military-industrial complex” as well as measures aimed at “unleash the value of frozen Russian sovereign assets.”
The United States wants to grant Ukraine up to $50 billion in loans guaranteed by the interest on 300 billion euros of Russian central bank assets frozen by the European Union and G7 countries.
At the same time, the Treasury Department is expanding its definition of complex “military-industrial” Russian, thus extending the scope of this so-called secondary sanctions regime to all Russian persons and entities who have already been hit by American sanctions. Concretely, any foreign financial institution could be sanctioned if they carry out transactions involving a sanctioned person or a targeted Russian bank.