AMERICA RESPONDS: Massive Sanctions and Troop Deployments After Ukraine Invasion
After weeks and weeks of speculation, superstition, and even more speculation, Vladimir Putin has ordered the invasion of Ukraine.
The world had seen it coming from miles away, but did little. The US President, Joe Biden, was routinely criticized earlier in the week for not having imposed any significant sanctions on Russia prior to the violence.
But, by Thursday, America was beginning to ramp up the economic penalties they’d be slapping Putin with…and moving more troops to Europe.
President Biden on Thursday announced new sanctions on Russia over its multi-front war on Ukraine and 7,000 more U.S. service members to Germany, but maintained that U.S. military will not fight in Ukraine.
But Biden stopped short of sanctioning Putin himself, and he did not announce a ban on Russia from the SWIFT banking system, saying Europe is not on board with such a move.
The sanctions were heavy, however.
Biden said the sanctions, in coordination with a coalition of other nations, would target more major Russian banks, including VTB, Sberbank, Bank Otkritie, Sovcombank OJSC and Novikombank. The sanctions will make it harder for Russia to do business in dollars, Euros, pounds and yen, and there will be “new limitations” on what can be exported to Russia, he said.
Advertisement - story continues belowThe sanctions will also target Russia elites: Sergei Ivanov and his son Sergei, Andrey Patrushev and his son Nikolai, Igor Sechin and his son Ivan, Andrey Puchkov, Yuriy Solviev and two real estate companies he owns, Galina Ulyutina and Alexander Vedyakhin, the U.S. said.
The sanctions will also limit the borrowing opportunities for 13 Russian entities and enterprises, according to the U.S.: Sberbank, AlfaBank, Credit Bank of Moscow, Gazprombank, Russian Agricultural Bank, Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, Transneft, Rostelecom, RusHydro, Alrosa, Sovcomflot, and Russian Railways.
Biden went on to suggest, rather emphatically, that Putin’s plan is not to stop this massive war effort with Ukraine, but to rebuild the entire Soviet Union.
