The United States has taken new actions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, focusing its efforts on preventing the circumvention of sanctions, Reuters reported, quoted by NOVA.
Washington continues to put pressure on Moscow in the final days of the Biden administration. The US Treasury Department said in a statement that Washington is imposing new sanctions on almost 100 targets - including Russian banks and companies operating in the energy sector - which were also subject to previous sanctions, in an attempt to increase the risk of secondary sanctions on companies of critical importance.
These actions are being taken in the final days of President Joe Biden's term. President-elect Donald Trump will return to the White House on January 20. Washington has also taken action against a sanctions-evading scheme set up between companies in Russia and China, as well as the Kyrgyzstan-based "Keremet Bank", which coordinated its actions with Russian officials, according to a statement.
"The purpose of these actions is to make it clear to financial institutions, but also to companies doing business with Russia, that business relationships that support its military industry also expose themselves to the risk of sanctions," said a senior official, who requested anonymity.
The State Department is also imposing sanctions on more than 150 entities and individuals, the Treasury Department said.
Western countries have frozen about $300 billion in Russian state assets since Moscow's full-scale attack on Ukraine in 2022. Most of them are in Europe, with about $22 billion in Britain. British lawmakers voted in favor of a non-binding proposal to give the money to Kiev. Several lawmakers cited uncertainty about future military aid to Ukraine under newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump, Voice of America reports.
Any reduction in U.S. aid to Kiev could force Europe to make a decision about frozen assets, says Alexander Kolyanda of the Center for European Policy Analysis. Ukraine could promise to use the money to buy U.S. weapons to secure Trump's support, he adds.
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However, the expert emphasizes that the European Central Bank and some national governments have expressed reservations about seizing Russian assets. "They fear that if they seize them, or in effect nationalize them and give them to Ukraine, it will undermine confidence in the euro as a reserve currency and other countries will be afraid to invest their sovereign assets in European stocks, shares, bonds and currencies," Kolyanda said.
Moscow says any seizure of its assets would be illegal and has vowed to retaliate. But analysts say most Western companies have already written off their assets in Russia, VOA reported.