The United States and its allies began acting to punish Russia with new sanctions after it recognized the independence of two provinces in eastern Ukraine and deployed its troops to the area earlier in the week.
The US, the European Union (EU), Britain, Australia, Canada and Japan have announced plans targeting banks and elite groups while Germany has halted major gas pipeline projects from Russia.
President Joe Biden described Moscow’s recent actions as an aggression on Ukraine and he announced comprehensive sanctions on Russia’s major bank VEB and its military bank that would ban American financial institutions from making transactions with them.
This action would effectively block such banks from transactions involving the US dollar, the global reserve currency.
In addition, Biden also announced that the United States would implement comprehensive sanctions on Russia’s national debt as well as blacklist three individuals from the country.
Russia continues to deny Western claims that it will invade Ukraine despite Washington claiming President Vladimir Putin has deployed more than 150,000 troops near the Ukrainian border.
Satellite images over the past 24 hours also show several new military and equipment deployments in western Russia and more than 100 vehicles at a small southern Belarusian airport bordering Ukraine, according to U.S. firm Maxar.
