President Joe Biden and federal officials announced plans Friday to sanction more than 500 targets as they seek to punish Russia and President Vladimir Putin for the invasion and war in Ukraine and the arctic prison death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
“These sanctions will target individuals connected to Navalny’s imprisonment as well as Russia’s financial sector, defense industrial base, procurement networks and sanctions evaders across multiple continents,” Biden said. “They will ensure Putin pays an even steeper price for his aggression abroad and repression at home.”
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said it plans to sanction nearly 300 people and businesses. The OFAC sanctions were announced alongside additional sanctions from the U.S. Department of State. The State Department announced sanctions on those involved in supporting Russian future energy revenue sources, maintaining Russia’s capacity to wage war, and those that have helped Russia get around previous sanctions.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. government has tried to punish Russia through sanctions designed to disrupt Russia’s economy and ability to continue the war. Over the past two years, the State Department and OFAC have sanctioned over 4,000 businesses and people. The goal has been to limit Russia’s ability make money to fund the war.
Russia has continued to fight despite previous sanctions.
“Russia’s economy and military-industrial base are showing clear signs of weakness in part due to the actions we, along with our partners and allies around the world, have taken to support Ukraine’s brave defense,” Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen said in a statement. “Putin has mortgaged the present and future of the Russian people for his own aims to subjugate Ukraine. The Kremlin chooses to reorient its economy to build weapons to kill its neighbors at the expense of the economic future of its own people.”
The sanctions come amid continued debate in Congress over funding for Ukraine.
