The US Department of Justice will create a special group to investigate the activities of Russian oligarchs. This was announced by US President Joe Biden during a speech in Congress on Tuesday, March 1.
“We are cutting off Russia’s access to technology, which will deprive their economy of strength and weaken the army. Today I say enough is enough to the Russian oligarchs and corrupt leaders who have received millions of dollars from the authorities,” he said.
According to Biden, the US will join forces with European allies “to find and seize your yachts, luxury apartments, private jets.”
“We are going after your ill-gotten gains,” the American leader added.
According to Biden, the Russian stock market has already lost 40% of its capitalization after Western sanctions. At the same time, he assured that restrictive measures will affect only the Russian Federation, and their consequences will not affect businesses and consumers in the United States.
On the same day, Canada announced the preparation of sanctions against Russian businessmen. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland specified that restrictive measures would apply to the assets of Russian oligarchs and Russian companies based in Canada.
Earlier on Tuesday, the permanent representatives of the EU countries agreed to disconnect seven Russian banks from the SWIFT interbank payment system. These included VTB, Rossiya, Otkritie, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Sovcombank and VEB.RF.
In addition, Mastercard blocked access to the payment network for a number of financial institutions in Russia. This decision was taken as a result of the sanctions orders against the country.
On February 28, the US Treasury banned transactions with the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the Treasury and the National Welfare Fund. On February 24, Washington imposed sanctions on a number of Russian companies with state participation or organizations important for the economy, and on “two companies dominated by private capital.” The list includes Gazprombank, Alfa-Bank, Sberbank, Otkritie Bank, Sovcombank, VTB, Rosselkhozbank, Moscow Credit Bank (MKB) and Novikombank. Then other countries imposed sanctions against Russian banks.
Against the backdrop of Western sanctions, the Bank of Russia announced additional measures to support credit institutions. On Monday, the regulator raised the key rate to 20%, noting that this decision will help maintain financial and price stability, protect citizens’ savings from depreciation, and also compensate for increased devaluation and inflation risks.
The sanctions came in response to the Russian-led operation to protect the Donbass, which Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 24. After that, the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky accused the Russian Federation of hitting the country’s military infrastructure and introduced martial law throughout the country. He later severed diplomatic relations with Russia.
On February 21, Putin signed decrees recognizing the independence of the DPR and LPR, as well as agreements on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance with the republics. The documents were ratified the next day.
The head of state made the relevant decisions against the backdrop of the aggravation of the situation in Donbass that began on February 17. The DPR and LPR reported heavy shelling by Ukrainian security forces, including from heavy weapons. The republics announced a general mobilization and evacuation of civilians to the territory of Russia.
For more up-to-date videos and details about the situation in Donbass, watch the Izvestia TV channel.