Newsman: The United States announced a package of new sanctions against Russia against Russia as the U.S. and other major economies already have frozen reserves held by Russia’s central bank. But the potential sales of gold reserves to propped up the value of Russia’s currency Rubles.
Along with the new sanctions, the U.S. and other members of the G-7 and the E.U. will also announce plans to try to blunt the Russian central bank’s ability to prop up the economy by making clear that any transaction involving gold related to the bank is prohibited, a senior US administration official told news media. Russia’s central bank had about 20% of its reserves in gold ahead of its invasion of Ukraine according to US. on Thursday, the G-7 countries and the European Union explicitly blocked these sales.
The U.S. said it would place additional sanctions on more than 400 Russians and Russian entities, including the Duma. The new sanctions include 328 Duma members; Herman Gref, the head of Russia’s largest financial institution Sberbank and a Putin adviser; member of the Russian elite Gennady Timchenko, his companies and his family members; 17 board members of the Russian financial institution Sovcombank; and 48 large Russian defense state-owned enterprises. It plans to take additional steps to prevent Russia from attempting to prop up its economy.
The US also announced further aid for Ukrainian refugees. and said it would welcome 100,000 refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine to increase their efforts to help Ukraine in a series of high-stakes meetings as President Joe Biden met with world leaders for a series of emergency summits
The U.S. also said that international organizations and multilateral corporations should no longer conduct their activities with Russia in a business-as-usual manner.
“Our purpose here is to methodically remove the benefits and privileges Russia once enjoyed as a participant in the international economic order,” according to US official told to news media.