Saint Basil’s Cathedral and Kremlin spiers are silhouetted against the sunset in Moscow, Russia, August 12, 2021. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/File Photo
WASHINGTON, April 6 – The United States on Wednesday targeted Russian banks and elites with a new package of sanctions that includes banning Americans from investing in Russia after Washington and Kyiv accused Moscow of committing war crimes in the country to have committed Ukraine.
The new sanctions will hit Russia’s Sberbank (SBER.MM), which holds a third of all Russian bank assets, and Alfabank, a senior US official, with full lockdown sanctions to reporters. Energy transactions are blocked by these sanctions, the official said.
The United States is also sanctioning the adult daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the wife and daughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and members of Russia’s Security Council, the official said. Americans are forbidden from investing in Russia, the official said, including through venture capital or mergers.
The US is “dramatically escalating” the financial shock to Russia by cutting off the country’s biggest banks, the official said. Russians could be pushed back to Soviet-style living standards from the 1980s, the official said.
The U.S. Department of Justice also announced new enforcement actions Wednesday to disrupt and prosecute Russian criminal activity. Continue reading
Grim images are emerging from the Ukrainian city of Bucha, including a mass grave and bodies of people shot at point-blank range, prompting calls for a tougher crackdown on Moscow and an international investigation. Continue reading
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the killings were part of a targeted Russian campaign to commit atrocities. Russia, which says it launched a “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24, denies attacking civilians and said the images of the deaths were a “monstrous fake” staged by the West. Neither provided evidence to support the claims.
A senior French official said the European Union is also likely to impose new sanctions on Wednesday.
Reporting by Alex Alper, Nandita Bose; writing by Susan Heavey; Adaptation by Heather Timmons, Howard Goller, Rosalba O’Brien and Mark Porter