Washington unveils its largest salvo of sanctions against Russia since the start of the war

Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: Mandel NGAN / AFP 4:59 p.m., February 23, 2024

The United States announced the largest round of sanctions against Russia since the invasion of Ukraine began two years ago.

Sanctions in response to the death of Russian opponent of Vladimir Putin, Alexeï Navalny.

European Union countries also agreed on a 13th package of sanctions. 

Joe Biden announced on Friday the largest round of American sanctions since Russia's invasion of Ukraine two years ago, and in response to the death of opponent Alexei Navalny, targeting more than 500 people and organizations. different countries.

Three Russian officials are among those targeted by the United States for their involvement in the death, the State Department announced.

Sanctions targeting “individuals linked to Navalny’s imprisonment”

“If Putin does not pay the price for the death and destruction he is spreading, he will continue,” US President Joe Biden warned in a statement on Friday.

He noted sanctions targeting "individuals linked to Navalny's imprisonment", but also the "Russian financial sector, the defense industry, supply networks and perpetrators of sanctions evasion, across several continents ."

The Treasury and State Department targeted more than 500 individuals and organizations in 11 and 26 countries, respectively (including China and Germany), blocking their assets in the United States and restricting their visa access.

Separately, the Commerce Department added 93 companies to its blacklist.

This brings to more than 4,000 the number of entities targeted by American sanctions since the start of the war.

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The objective of these sanctions: to limit the financial resources available to the Russian government to finance the war against Ukraine, launched just two years ago, on February 24, 2022. "We are taking measures to continue to reduce revenues of the Russian energy sector, and I asked my teams to strengthen support for civil society, independent media and all those fighting for democracy around the world,” Joe Biden wrote again.

The Russian Mir payment system in the American sights

Among the long list, technology companies in the semiconductor, optics, drones, and information systems sectors, and even an institute of applied mathematics.

But also the Russian Mir payment system, the development of which "has enabled Russia to build a financial infrastructure that allows it to escape sanctions and to rebuild broken links with the international financial system", according to the US Department of the Treasury .

Developed in 2015 in the face of Western sanctions following the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Mir cards - a term which means "world" and "peace" in Russian - allow Russians to make payments and withdraw money in some foreign countries.

Washington says it targets "individuals located outside of Russia who facilitate, orchestrate, participate in or otherwise support the transfer of critical technologies and equipment to the Russian military-industrial base," the Treasury Department said in a statement. communicated.

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And warns that sanctions will continue to be imposed "on people, wherever they are located, who allow Russia to reconnect to global financial markets using illicit channels."

Because, despite the multitude of Western sanctions, Russia recorded growth of 3.6% in its GDP in 2023, thanks to orders for munitions and arms.

For the American Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, Vladimir Putin "mortgaged the present and the future of the Russian people", and "the Kremlin chooses to reorient its economy to manufacture weapons to kill its neighbors as quickly as possible, at the expense of the economic future of its own population.

EU countries agree on new sanctions package

Sanctions and announcements have multiplied within Western countries as the second anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine approaches.

EU countries thus agreed on a 13th package of sanctions, while the United Kingdom took measures against more than 50 personalities and companies, and announced new deliveries of missiles to the Ukrainians.

French President Emmanuel Macron is organizing a meeting in Paris on Monday in support of Ukraine with several heads of state and government or their ministerial representatives.

And, if the Biden administration regularly assures Ukraine of its support, American military aid of 60 billion dollars is nevertheless blocked in Congress, due to the opposition of Donald Trump, many of whose lieutenants sit in the House of Representatives. representatives.

Joe Biden called on parliamentarians to approve this funding as quickly as possible, "before it is too late", insisting that "this is the time to prove that the United States is committed to freedom and will not submit to no one".