“The United States has imposed the highest level of sanctions to date against Sberbank, Russia’s largest public bank, and Alfa-Bank, the country’s first private bank”observe the Financial Times.
The evening confirms that the new sanctions are “devastating” and that with them, “the United States has taken another step in the economic strangulation of the aggressor country in Ukraine”.
The two financial institutions“are now subject to a freeze on all their assets ‘in touch with the American financial system’”details the Brussels daily. “They will be prohibited from any transactions with American actors. In addition, any investment in Russia is now prohibited, particularly in two strategic sectors, aeronautical construction and shipyards”.
These sanctions are also likely to raise the specter of a “failure to pay” of Russia, warns The worldcar “they prohibit Moscow from using funds from American financial institutions to pay its debt”.
“Major war crimes”
For the American authorities, the crushing blow inflicted on Sberbank and Alfa means that “two thirds of the Russian banking sector are now blocked”. The European Union has announced that it will adopt similar measures in the coming days.
Joe Biden “clearly linked the new measures to the killing of civilians in Boutcha, on the outskirts of kyiv”whose images caused a global shock wave, observes The Guardian. From the White House, the American president accused Russia of “major war crimes”and urged the “nations with a sense of responsibility” at “uniting to hold those responsible to account”.
The sanctions announced Wednesday also lengthen the list of officials, oligarchs, senior officials and Putin associates to have their assets frozen in the United States. Among those targeted are the two adult daughters of the Russian president, born of his marriage to Lyudmila Putina, from whom he divorced in 2013.
Flat
The two thirty-somethings, about whom we know almost nothing – Putin fiercely protects his private life – “have been identified by the US Treasury as Katerina Vladimirovna Tikhonova et Maria Vladimirovna Vorontsova”reports the Wall Street Journal.
The first one “is a leader in the technology sector, whose activity supports the Russian government and the defense industry”, specifies the economic daily. The second “runs a public scholarship program for genetic research, funded by the Kremlin and personally supervised by Mr. Putin”.
By targeting the family of the Russian president, “the United States hopes to freeze the assets that Putin may have concealed under cover of his daughters”Explain CNN. According to the US Treasury, which does not disclose what those assets might be, “this is a common practice among the Russian elite”.
While this new set of sanctions is undeniably significant, “a caveat remains, however, for supporters of the most severe line towards Moscow”writing The evening. The daily interviewed Edward Fishman, a former diplomat who covered sanctions against Russia under the Obama era. He observes that the measures announced “are not about the biggest flaw in the sanctions regime: gas and oil, which continue to bring $1 billion a day to the Kremlin. As long as this loophole exists, the sanctions pressure will remain limited”.