US to impose new sanctions on Russia as anniversary nears

The US will sanction more than 500 people and entities linked to Russia’s war machine, in its most sweeping single push to to squeeze the Russian economy nearly two years after President Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine, according to a Treasury Department spokesperson.

The actions will be announced Friday by the State and Treasury Departments, the spokesperson said. Earlier this week, President Joe Biden had said the US planned to unveil a “major” sanctions package following the death of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny in a remote Arctic prison.

“If Putin does not pay the price for his death and destruction, he will keep going,” the president said in a statement early Friday. “And the costs to the United States — along with our NATO Allies and partners in Europe and around the world — will rise.”

The US has already imposed significant sanctions affecting large swaths of Russia’s economy and prominent officials following the invasion of Ukraine. It’s acted in concert with European allies, which have also imposed about a dozen sanctions packages against Putin in a bid to punish him for the invasion and crimp his forces’ ability to wage war. 

The US began imposing harsh penalties and export controls on the Russian economy in the days immediately following the invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, including freezing the country’s central bank assets and cutting several of its banks off the Swift financial messaging system. A price cap on Russian oil was introduced in the summer of 2022 and implemented in December of that year, targeting Putin’s most lucrative commodity.

Though the Russian economy shrank initially and the ruble fell, the country eventually recovered and is projected to grow by 2.6% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. Even so, some experts believe that Russian GDP will be about 10% lower in 2030 than it would have been otherwise.

“The export controls that we’ve put in place have weakened Russia’s war machine and these restrictions will get significantly tighter in the coming days as we and our partners announce a massive new sanctions package, designed, among other things, to strangle Russia’s effort and sanctions evasion,” Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland told an event Thursday.

Biden met the widow and daughter of Navalny in San Francisco on Thursday.

“To state the obvious, he was a man of incredible courage,” Biden told reporters after the meeting. “It’s amazing how his wife and daughter are emulating that.”

“We’re going to be announcing sanctions against Putin, who is responsible for his death, tomorrow,” Biden said.