US President Joe Biden announced Tuesday a “first round” of sanctions that will cut off Russia from Western funding and hit “Russian elites” as well as financial institutions.
“We are implementing sanctions on Russia’s sovereign debt. This means we cut off the Russian government from Western funding,” Biden declared at the White House.
The measures include blockades against the Foreign Economic and Development Bank (VEB), a state-controlled corporation, as well as Russia’s military bank. Similarly, from tomorrow there will be sanctions against the Russian elite and their families.
The US president considered that Russia’s recognition of the independence of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk is “the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine” and threatened the Kremlin with “going further with sanctions” if it continues along these lines.
Biden said that by deciding to recognize the independence of these two pro-Russian regions, President Vladimir Putin “is creating a reason to seize more territory by force … he is creating a reason to go much further. This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine,” he ventured.
“I have authorized new deployments of US forces and equipment, already positioned in Europe, to reinforce our Baltic allies, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania,” the president added, but recalled that the United States does not lose hope of finding a diplomatic solution.
Given this situation, Biden promised that the United States will not only provide more military support to Ukraine after Putin has directly attacked its “right to exist”, but will also strengthen its Baltic allies.
“We have no intention of fighting Russia. However, we want to send an unequivocal message: that the United States and its allies will defend every inch of NATO territory and will enforce their commitments,” said Joe Biden, who also called “extreme” Russia’s demands during the negotiations.
“There is still time to avoid the worst of situations,” the US president said in his speech.
“The United States and its allies remain open to diplomacy if it is serious. We will judge Russia by its actions, not its words. We stand ready to respond to Russia with unity, clarity and conviction, whatever it does.”
“I am going to take strong action to make sure that the pain of our sanctions is directed at the Russian economy, not ours,” the president said. “We are closely monitoring power supplies for any interruptions.”
Vladimir Putin recognized on Monday the independence of the troubled Donetsk and Lugansk regions, and hours later ordered the entry of the Russian Armed Forces into them as part of a “peacekeeping mission”, decisions harshly criticized by the majority of the international community.
The Ukrainian government put the death toll in eight years of conflict in the country’s east on Monday at 14,000, before adding that at least 30,000 people have been injured, while 1.5 million people have been forced to flee their homes in Crimea and Donbas to escape the Russian “occupation” of the territory of Ukraine.
german lockdown
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced on Tuesday the blocking of the certification of the Nord Stream II gas pipeline, in response to Vladimir Putin’s initiative to recognize the pro-Russian separatist territories of Ukraine.
“In the context of the escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the German government is halting the approval process for the Russian-German Nord Stream II gas pipeline until further notice,” the German chancellor said.
Scholz affirmed that the German government, as well as those of its partners in the European Union, will announce in a coordinated manner the sanctions that will be imposed on Russia, in the face of what he called a “rupture” by Russia of the international agreements signed by Moscow in the last decades.
