Joe Biden had promised “major sanctions” in response to the death of opponent Alexeï Navalny, while February 24 will mark the start of the third year of the Russian invasion in Ukraine. It’s done, with the largest salvo of American sanctions taken by Washington since the start of the conflict, targeting more than 500 people and organizations from different countries. “Please know that the tragic death of Alexei Navalny and the abuses that preceded it will not be forgotten and will not go unanswered,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo insisted this Friday, February 23.
Three Russian officials are among those targeted by the United States for their involvement in the death of the Kremlin’s number 1 opponent, the State Department announced. “If Putin does not pay the price for the death and destruction he is spreading, he will continue,” US President Joe Biden warned in a statement on Friday. He noted sanctions targeting “individuals linked to Navalny’s imprisonment”, but also the “Russian financial sector, the defense industry, supply networks and perpetrators of sanctions evasion, across several continents .”
The Treasury and State Department targeted more than 500 individuals and organizations in 11 and 26 countries, respectively (including China and Germany), blocking their assets in the United States and restricting their visa access. Separately, the Commerce Department added 93 companies to its blacklist. Enough to bring to more than 4,000 the number of entities targeted by American sanctions since the start of the war.
The Mir payment system in the crosshairs
The United States does not intend to stop there, far from it. “You can count on more measures from the government to hold the Kremlin accountable for Navalny’s death. Those announced today were only the beginning,” John Kirby, spokesperson, warned on Friday. of the National Security Council.
The objective of these sanctions: to limit the financial resources available to the Russian government to finance the war against Ukraine, launched just two years ago, on February 24, 2022. “We are taking measures to continue to reduce revenues of the Russian energy sector, and I asked my teams to strengthen support for civil society, independent media and all those fighting for democracy around the world,” Joe Biden wrote again. Among the long list, technology companies in the semiconductor, optics, drones, and information systems sectors, and even an institute of applied mathematics.
But also the Russian Mir payment system, the development of which “has enabled Russia to build a financial infrastructure that allows it to escape sanctions and to rebuild broken links with the international financial system”, according to the US Department of the Treasury . Developed in 2015 in the face of Western sanctions following the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Mir cards – a term which means “world” and “peace” in Russian – allow Russians to make payments and withdraw money in some foreign countries. Attacking this system thus aims to increase the weight of sanctions against those who continue to trade and feed the Kremlin’s coffers throughout the world.
The United States also aims to strengthen the “price cap” in force in Western countries on Russian oil, which obliges buyers to obtain oil from Moscow at a preferential rate or face heavy financial sanctions. However, numerous investigations have shown that Russia still manages to sell its oil at very advantageous prices throughout the world – with China, India and Brazil buying Russian oil in record quantities -, thus largely circumventing the Western sanctions. Quoted in the American newspaper The Washington PostDeputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said the United States is not aiming to reduce the price at which Russians can sell oil, but would take tough action against actors who violate the cap .
Russia denounces “cynical” American interference
Washington says it targets “individuals located outside of Russia who facilitate, orchestrate, participate in or otherwise support the transfer of critical technologies and equipment to the Russian military-industrial base,” the Treasury Department said in a statement. communicated. And warns that sanctions will continue to be imposed “on people, wherever they are located, who allow Russia to reconnect to global financial markets using illicit channels.”
Because, despite the multitude of Western sanctions, Russia recorded growth of 3.6% in its GDP in 2023, thanks to orders for munitions and arms. For the American Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, Vladimir Putin “mortgaged the present and the future of the Russian people”, and “the Kremlin chooses to reorient its economy to manufacture weapons to kill its neighbors as quickly as possible, at the expense of the economic future of its own population.
Russia quickly reacted to this new round of American sanctions, describing it as “interference”, intended to divide Russians before the presidential election in mid-March which should see Vladimir Putin triumphantly re-elected. “The new restrictions are another shameless and cynical attempt to interfere in Russia’s internal affairs, to force us to give up our vital interests, to divide Russian society on the eve […] of the presidential election”, denounced the ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, quoted by the Russian state agency Tass.
Sanctions which are also intensifying in Europe
Sanctions and announcements against Russia have increased in Western countries as the second anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine approaches. EU countries thus agreed on a thirteenth package of sanctions, while the United Kingdom took measures against more than fifty personalities and companies, and announced new deliveries of missiles to the Ukrainians. President Emmanuel Macron is organizing a meeting in Paris on Monday in support of Ukraine with several heads of state and government or their ministerial representatives.
And, if the Biden administration regularly assures Ukraine of its support, American military aid of 60 billion dollars is nevertheless blocked in Congress, due to the opposition of Donald Trump, many of whose lieutenants sit in the House of Representatives. representatives. Joe Biden called on parliamentarians to approve this funding as quickly as possible, “before it is too late”, insisting that “this is the time to prove that the United States is committed to freedom and does not submit to no one”. It remains to be seen whether these new sanctions will be able to have a significant impact on the continuation of the war, even though they have so far not curbed the expansionist desires of the head of the Kremlin.