The Biden administration has announced new sanctions on over 300 members of the Duma, which is the so-called lower chamber of the Russian legislature. In an address before members of Congress, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently explicitly called for new sanctions against Russian government officials. As now explained in a fact sheet from the White House, the Biden administration’s new moves include “[full] blocking sanctions on more than 400 individuals and entities, including the Duma and its members, additional Russian elites, and Russian defense companies that fuel Putin’s war machine.” That list includes 328 members of the Duma, “48 Large Russian defense state-owned enterprises that are part of Russia’s defense-industrial base and produce weapons that have been used in Russia’s assault against Ukraine’s people, infrastructure, and territory,” as the White House explains, and more.
⚡️President’s Office: Russia will try to shift its war to the attrition phase.
According to Mykhailo Podoliak, advisor to the head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration, Russia is forced to begin a war of attrition due to the lack of success and a high death toll.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 24, 2022
World leaders including the Biden administration are also working on addressing attempts to evade sanctions imposed in connection to the war in Ukraine. A new effort, the White House said, is meant “to share information about and coordinate responses related to evasive measures intended to undercut the effectiveness and impact of our joint sanctions actions.” (G7 nations and the European Union are involved.) Apparently, over 600 targets around Russia have now been hit with sanctions by the United States. Overall, Russia has become the most-sanctioned country on the planet, even surpassing North Korea, since the war in Ukraine began weeks ago. Economic counter-measures targeting the Russian government have also included restrictions on foreign currency reserves held by Russia’s central bank, and the White House also stated this week that “G7 leaders and the European Union will continue to work jointly to blunt Russia’s ability to deploy its international reserves to prop up Russia’s economy and fund Putin’s war, including by making clear that any transaction involving gold related to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation is covered by existing sanctions.”
⚡️ Over 100 European MPs call for full embargo on trade with Russia.
According to a petition signed by European lawmakers, the embargo should include a ban on Russian energy imports and all Russian financial institutions should be cut off from the SWIFT payment system.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 24, 2022
It’s worth noting, on the subject, that Trump advocated for Russia to be brought back into the G7 group of nations, from which it had been expelled (when it was the G8) specifically because of past aggression towards Ukraine. The notion that Trump, if he was in power, would be leading some kind of valiant response to present Russian violence in Ukraine is ludicrous. One could imagine that Trump would basically have to be rhetorically dragged into taking even the most foundational steps against the Putin regime in connection to the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the worldwide efforts to hold Putin and his cronies economically accountable for the invasion of Ukraine have also included seizures of high-dollar assets held by Russian oligarchs; examples include a yacht estimated to be worth around half a billion dollars and owned by wealthy Russian Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko, which was recently brought under the control of the Italian government. The U.S. Justice Department said U.S. law enforcement provided information to external partners that assisted with certain seizures, although it didn’t specify which seizures it meant.
⚡️ General Staff: Russia deploys additional military equipment to Belarus, Crimea, plans to encircle Kyiv.
According to Ukraine’s Armed Forces, Russian troops are planning to attempt to encircle Kyiv and to occupy Donetsk & Luhansk regions.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 24, 2022
