Washington is planning to unveil more sanctions against Russia a year after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reports. The US Treasury and State Department will announce the new sanction package later this week, the newspaper writes.
According to The Wall Street Journal, 200 Russian nationals and companies will be blacklisted, including several Russian governors and family members of high-ranking officials as well as Russian defence industry corporations. Moreover, the US is set to impose restrictions against “alleged sanctions-evasions networks”.
Western officials admit that many measures which could deal the biggest blow to the Kremlin’s abilities to finance the Ukraine war, including energy embargos and financial sanctions, have already been adopted, WSJ reports. Diplomats are now looking to close loopholes in the sanction regimes and ramp up efforts to prevent sanction evasion.
The newspaper emphasises that the EU is also planning to introduce new sanctions against Russia in close cooperation with the US. In particular, Brussels wants to ban Russian imports worth more than $11 billion per year and sanction Iranian companies that supply drones to Russia.
On February 21, US President Joe Biden delivered a speech in Warsaw, Poland. He announced that the Western coalition would introduce more restrictions against Russia over the Ukraine war later this week, vowing to hold war criminals accountable.
Earlier, Bloomberg reported that the upcoming EU sanction package could target Russia’s Alfa Bank, Tinkoff Bank, Rosbank, and the National Wealth Fund.
