The United States announced this Wednesday (04.06.2022) a total blockade of the two main Russian banks and sanctions against Katerina Tikhonova and Maria Vorontsova, the two daughters of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, as well as the wife and daughter of the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Serguei Lavrov, after the massacre perpetrated in the Ukrainian city of Bucha. Both are now subject to a US asset freeze and cut off from the US financial system.
A senior official from the Joe Biden government explained in a call with journalists the “total blockade” of Sberbank and Alfa Bank, the country’s largest financial institutions, which will not be able to make transactions with the United States in any currency. And he reported that all new American investments in Russia are prohibited.
Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev was also charged in the United States for violating the sanctions imposed by Washington, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Wednesday. “After being sanctioned by the United States, Malofeyev attempted to evade sanctions by using co-conspirators to surreptitiously acquire and run media outlets across Europe,” Garland said. The Russian billionaire had previously been identified as a source of funding for Russians promoting separatism in Crimea and as a provider of support to the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine, the official added.
New sanctions also from Europe
Meanwhile, the UK today imposed another round of sanctions against Russia. “Our latest wave of measures means an end to British imports of Russian energy, and more sanctions on businessmen, to decimate Putin’s war machine,” said a statement from the Foreign Office and its head Liz Truss.
The countries of the European Union are also discussing today the details of a new package of sanctions against Moscow, the fifth since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, which would affect the energy sector for the first time with the prohibition of imports of Russian coal. The meeting, however, will probably continue tomorrow, Thursday.
“The Commission has always pushed for ambitious and effective sanctions that have a significant impact on the Russian economy and the Kremlin’s ability to finance its invasion of Ukraine” and this “requires that we ship all member states, they all have to be with us,” said the chief spokesman for the European Commission, Eric Mamer, at a press conference.
lgc (afp / efe)