The US Treasury Department today banned transactions with the Russian Central Bank and its foreign investment fund amid the war in Ukraine.
As of this Monday, American individuals and companies will not be able to send dollars or carry out any financial transactions with the Central Bank, the National Wealth Fund or the Ministry of Finance of the Eurasian giant.
The US authorities announced that they would make exceptions for certain payments related to energy, to avoid a sharp increase in world prices for oil and natural gas.
This is a new effort by the northern country to continue pushing the Russian economy towards a collapse amid warlike tensions between Russia and Ukraine, a conflict that concerns Washington.
Our strategy is to make sure the Russian economy regresses while President Vladimir Putin decides to go ahead with the war, a senior official in the Joe Biden administration has said.
The United States and its Western allies announced last Saturday that they would target more than $600 billion in reserves at the Russian bank, which they described as Putin’s “war chest” to avoid sanctions.
The White House has a long history of unilateral sanctions against countries it considers enemies for opposing Western hegemony, such as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Venezuela, Iran and Cuba.
Russia has already begun to shield its economy to maintain economic and financial stability, according to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, who rejected on Monday the restrictions imposed by countries allied with the United States.
Starting this Monday, the largest country in the world will force exporters to sell 80 percent of their income in foreign currency on a mandatory basis, to guarantee sustainable prices and exchange rates.
“The state coffers have sufficient resources to meet social obligations,” said the head of Russian Finance, Antón Siluánov.
On February 24, Russia began a special military operation in Ukraine after the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk (DPR) and Lugansk (PRL) asked for help to stop the hostilities of the Government of Volodímir Zelenski.
According to Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov, his country did not start the conflict with Ukraine, but the Kiev authorities, whose army relentlessly attacked the population of Donbass for eight years.
