Today, the United States, in coordination with allies and partners, is imposing additional economic costs on Russia and Belarus in response to President Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. The United States will take action to hold Belarus accountable for allowing Putin to invade Ukraine, weaken Russia’s defense sector and its military might for years to come, focus on Russia’s most important sources of wealth, and ban Russian airlines to enter US airspace.
As a result of our historic multilateral coordination, Russia has become a global economic and financial pariah. More than 30 countries, representing more than half of the world’s economy, have announced sanctions and export controls against Russia. Russia is further isolated from the international financial and trade system. We are preventing Putin from accessing his military chest to soften the blow of our actions and support his invasion of Ukraine. The United States and governments around the world are persecuting Putin’s friends and their families by identifying and freezing the assets they hold in our jurisdictions – their yachts, luxury apartments, money and other ill-gotten gains. Both the United States and our allies are working together to minimize the impact of these measures on our economies, including through the coordinated release of 60 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves. We will continue to impose costs on allies and partners as Putin continues to escalate.
Today’s actions include:
- Extensive restrictions on Belarus to stifle its imports of technological goods in response to its support for Putin’s war of choice. The Ministry of Trade will expand the strict export control policies imposed on Russia in Belarus. This action will help prevent the diversion of articles, technology and software through Belarus to Russia and will significantly impair the ability of both countries to maintain their military aggression and project power. This will severely limit the ability of Russia and Belarus to obtain the materials needed to support their military aggression against Ukraine, to project force in ways that threaten regional stability and undermine global peace and security.
- Sanctions for complete blocking of Russian defense organizations. The State Department will impose broad sanctions on Russia’s defense sector to further curb Putin’s military machine. This action will impose significant costs on Russian weapons development and production companies. A total of 22 Russian defense organizations will be identified, including companies that make fighter jets, infantry fighting vehicles, electronic warfare systems, missiles and drones for the Russian military.
- Export controls are aimed at refining oil, a key source of revenue that supports the Russian military. By controlling the export of oil and gas equipment, the Ministry of Trade will impose restrictions on the export of technologies that would support Russia’s refining capacity in the long run. The United States and our allies and partners have no strategic interest in reducing global energy supply – which is why we have cut energy payments from our financial sanctions. But we and our allies and partners share a strong interest in deteriorating Russia’s status as a leading energy supplier over time. These actions will help achieve this goal while protecting American consumers.
- Target entities supporting the Russian and Belarusian military. The Ministry of Trade, in coordination with its interdepartmental partners, will add entities that have participated in, contributed to or otherwise supported the Russian and Belarusian security services, the military and defense sector and / or the military and defense research and development efforts to the List of Sites. . These actions will ensure that the military, as well as the aerospace, marine and high-tech sectors, do not receive US technology goods and technologies that can be used to support Russian technical support and innovation.
- Prohibition of Russian aircraft from entering and using US domestic airspace. As the president announced, the United States will close US airspace to all Russian flights – further isolating Russia – and adding extra strain to its economy. This includes aircraft certified, operated, registered or controlled by any person associated with Russia. This includes denying all Russian airlines, both passenger and cargo, the ability to operate to and from American destinations, as well as denying any aircraft operated by Russia into US airspace. With this action, the United States stands with more than 30 of the world’s most important aviation markets, denying Russian carriers the opportunity to do business.
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