US Puts More Sanctions On Russia, Targets “Putin’s war machine”

As part of a new package commemorating the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and in response to the passing of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, a top US official announced on Thursday that the US would apply “hundreds and hundreds and hundreds” of sanctions against the country.

While the majority of the sanctions will target “Putin’s war machine” and remove loopholes in the current sanctions regimes, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs of the United States Victoria Nuland stated that some of the measures would be applied on those responsible for the killing of Navalny, banks that permit evasion of sanctions and countries supporting Russia in evading those sanctions.

Without providing specifics, President Joe Biden stated on Tuesday that Washington would unveil a significant set of sanctions against Russia on Friday. Russia began invading Ukraine from Feb. 24, 2022.

Nuland stated, “We will have a crushing new package of sanctions, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them in the next couple of days… and some of them will be targeted at folks directly involved in Navalny’s death,” during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.

The great majority, according to her, are intended to diminish more “(Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s war machine to close gaps in the sanctions regime that he has been able to evade. But I anticipate that as time goes on, we will be able to put forward more and more sanctions,” she stated.

Nuland conceded that Russia’s defense industry has continued to operate despite the existing restrictions. “He (Putin) and his tricksters have found a lot of gaps,” she stated.