Biden said that the new sanctions include people linked to the death of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny (European)
US President Joe Biden announced a new sanctions package on Russia, described as the largest since the start of the war in Ukraine, and included measures against more than 500 people and entities in many countries.
Biden said - in a statement issued today, Friday, on the eve of the second anniversary of the start of the war - that "if (Russian President Vladimir) Putin does not pay the price for the death and destruction he is causing, he will continue his actions."
He explained that the new sanctions target "Russia's financial sector, the infrastructure of its defense industries, supply networks, and sanctions evasion agencies across several continents," despite the fact that the measures adopted by Washington over the past two years did not succeed in stopping the war.
Biden also referred to the targeting of people linked to the death of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny in prison a week ago, and the US State Department later clarified that the targets were 3 Russian officials.
In total, the Treasury and State Departments targeted more than 500 individuals and entities with this package, freezing their assets in the United States and restricting their access to visas. Separately, the Commerce Department added 93 companies to its sanctions list.
The long list includes technology companies in the semiconductor, drones and information systems sectors and two institutes of applied mathematics.
The sanctions also include the Russian payment system "Mir", which the US Treasury says enabled Moscow to "build a financial infrastructure that allowed it to circumvent sanctions and restore severed links with the international financial system."
Thus, the number of entities targeted by US sanctions since the beginning of the war has risen to more than 4,000.
In the first comment on the American move, the Russian ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, told official news agencies that “the new illegal restrictions are another malicious attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the Russian Federation.”
These sanctions come before the Russian presidential elections scheduled for next month, in which President Vladimir Putin is expected to win a new term.
The European Union countries also agreed on the 13th package of sanctions on Russia, and Britain also took measures against more than 50 individuals and companies, and announced the delivery of new shipments of missiles to Ukraine.
Despite the accumulation of sanctions over two years, the Russian economy is expected to record new growth this year, albeit at a lower pace, as the country has adapted to these restrictions and has come to rely on trade exchanges with non-Western partners, especially China.
Source: French