The United States yesterday announced the largest package of sanctions against Russia since the invasion of Ukraine. More than 500 individuals and companies related to the imprisonment and treatment in prison of Aleksei Navalni, as well as the financing of the war machine of Vladimir Putin, whom Washington blames for the death of its main opponent, will be targeted.
The sanctions, imposed in coordination between the Treasury and State departments, were announced on Tuesday by the White House. Biden confirmed them on Thursday, after meeting with Navalni’s widow, Iúlia Navalnaia, in a meeting in San Francisco (California).
The new sanctions “will be directed against people related to the imprisonment of Navalny, as well as against the financial sector, the defense industrial base, procurement networks and Russian sanctions evaders on multiple continents”, he specified yesterday Biden in a statement. “They will ensure that Putin pays an even higher price for aggression abroad and repression at home.”
They are added to the economic sanctions imposed by the West during these two years of war, which have so far failed to deter Russia from invading Ukraine. In fact, the Russian economy grew by more than 3.6% last year, 0.3% more than the US, and the Putin Government’s military investment has also been on the rise.
In that time, the United States has coordinated with its G-7 allies to cap the selling price of Russian oil on world markets and has frozen hundreds of billions of dollars in Russian central bank assets, in addition of imposing other trade restrictions to block the flow of technology and equipment to the Russian armed forces.
“Tomorrow it will be two years since Russian missiles began exploding near Kyiv. Russian troops crossed the border with Ukraine. They started Vladimir Putin’s ferocious bet,” Biden recalled yesterday. “He believed that he could easily bend the will and determination of a free people, that he could drag down a sovereign nation, that he could shake the foundations of security in Europe and beyond.”
“Two years later, we see even more clearly what we have known since day one: Putin miscalculated. The brave Ukrainian people continue to fight, indestructible in their determination to defend their freedom. NATO is stronger, bigger and more united than ever. And the unprecedented global coalition of 50 nations in support of Ukraine, led by the US, remains committed to providing critical aid and holding Russia accountable for its aggression.”
The president reiterated the demand for Republicans to lift the block on the additional aid package for Ukraine, which passed the Senate – with the favorable vote of its Democratic majority and some moderate Republicans – but that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, refuses to bring to a vote for its final approval. The bill consists of 95.3 billion dollars, mainly intended to help Ukraine (60 billion), Israel (14.1 billion), the sending of humanitarian assistance (9.2 billion) and support to allies in the Indo-Pacific (4.800 millions).
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has gone to Ukraine with four other Democratic senators to reiterate his support for the resistance war. Schumer describes the visit as a display of support for Ukraine, as well as a demonstration to NATO countries that the US is “not leaving Europe” and “not backing down on its responsibilities to allies”, a clear contrast to the statements of Donald Trump at the beginning of the month, in which he claimed that in 2018 he told a European leader that he would “encourage Russia to do whatever the hell it wants” with NATO allies that do not spend enough on defense.
