The United States, in coordination with its allies and partners, has taken additional steps to impose consequences on President Putin and his supporters for Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine.
In coordination with the G7 the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced sanctions on June 27 aimed at Russia’s defense industrial base, including Rostec, which Treasury described as “the cornerstone of Russia’s defense, industrial, technology and manufacturing sectors,” as well 29 Russian individuals. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, “Targeting Russia’s defense industry will degrade Putin’s capabilities and further impede his war against Ukraine, which has already been plagued by poor morale, broken supply chains and logistical failures.”
The Treasury Department also announced that the United States, joined by Canada, the United Kingdom and Japan, had prohibited the import of Russian gold -- the Russian Federation’s biggest non-energy export.
The Treasury Department’s actions were taken in tandem with the Department of State, which imposed sanctions on 45 entities and 29 individuals under Executive Order 14024.
The designations include Russian military units credibly implicated in human rights abuses in Ukraine, including summary executions, beatings of unarmed civilians, and destruction of homes.
In addition, the State Department designated the Russian Federation’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, for human rights violations, in particular citing the FSB’s “central involvement” in the running of filtration camps where Ukrainian citizens are forcibly relocated to Russia-controlled territory or to Russia itself, and subjected to long, harsh interrogations.
The State Department also designated numerous defense-related Russian Federation entities, and imposed visa restrictions on 511 Russian military officers for threatening or violating Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as restricting visas on 18 Russian nationals in relation to suppression of dissent.
The sanctions and export controls imposed on Russia in the past months by the U.S. and its partners have already had a dramatic effect. Scores of foreign companies have exited the country; Russia’s import of goods from around the world has fallen by 40%; Russian factories are struggling to maintain production. Inflation is rising to over 20%; and, for the first time in more than a century, Russia has defaulted on its sovereign debt.
As Secretary of State Blinken has said, the United States “will continue to act with our allies and partners in imposing costs on Russia if it continues its war of choice.”
