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US PRESIDENT JOE Biden has announced “severe” economic sanctions to make Russian President Vladimir Putin a “pariah” for invading Ukraine, but conceded there was a lack of Western unity for enacting an even tougher measure.
In a speech from the White House, Biden said four more banks – including the two biggest, Sberbank & VTB – would be hit with sanctions by Western sanctions. In addition, export controls slapped on sensitive components will “cut off more than half of Russia’s high-tech imports”.
“This is going to impose severe cost on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time,” Biden said.
Those measures, on top of a raft of other sanctions already announced this week, will make Putin “a pariah on the international stage,” Biden said.
“Any nation that countenances Russia’s naked aggression against Ukraine will be stained by association,” he said.
Biden confirmed that for now there was no attempt to put sanctions directly on Putin, who is widely reported to have amassed a huge, secret fortune during his two decades in power.
He also said that a much talked about move to cut Russia from the SWIFT international payments system – essentially crippling its banking sector - was not happening.
Ukraine pleaded for yanking Russia from SWIFT on Thursday, but Biden said that the Western coalition could not come to an agreement.
“It is always an option but right now that’s not the position that the rest of Europe wishes to take,” he said.
G7 closes ranks
Biden spoke to the nation after having attended a virtual, closed-door meeting which lasted an hour and 10 minutes with the Group of Seven.
The group of rich Western democracies – Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States – said it was standing firm against Russia’s “threat to the rules-based international order”.
Biden tweeted that G7 leaders “agreed to move forward on devastating packages of sanctions and other economic measures to hold Russia to account. We stand with the brave people of Ukraine”.
In a joint statement, the seven industrial powers also said they were “ready to act” to minimize disruptions to world energy markets as a result of Moscow’s assault on Ukraine and with sanctions already targeting a major pipeline from heavyweight energy producer Russia.
In London, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain was freezing the UK assets of Russian titans in banking and arms manufacturing, sanctioning five more oligarchs, and banning Aeroflot.
And Germany’s vice chancellor, Robert Habeck, signalled on Thursday that the Western sanctions aimed to “cut off the Russian economy from industrial progress (and) dramatically limit access to the European and American markets.”
Next step
A first round of Western sanctions was unleashed on Tuesday, after Putin announced he would send troops as “peacekeepers” to two small areas already controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.
The US government joined European allies in imposing sanctions on two Russian banks, Moscow’s sovereign debt, several oligarchs and other measures.
Then on Wednesday, as the Russian invasion force became clearly primed to attack, Biden announced he was imposing sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany – one of Moscow’s highest-profile geopolitical projects.
Germany had earlier announced it would block the pipeline from opening for deliveries.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price warned this week that “no Russian financial institution is safe”.
But there are limitations to what Western countries can do at a time when the world is emerging from the Covid pandemic.
Energy and other big Russian sectors are for now considered off limits for sanctions. Even so, oil prices are soaring at over $100 a barrel – a surge that will hurt Western political leaders as voters feel pain at filling stations.
The United States is “not going to do anything which causes an unintended disruption to the flow of energy as the global economic recovery is still underway,” said deputy national security advisor, Daleep Singh.
The SWIFT option in particular is seen as problematic. It would at least for some time disconnect Russia from basic commerce – hugely disrupting Putin’s economy – but it would also carry considerable potential aftershocks to the wider, US-led financial system.
Another weakness to the sanctions strategy is that Putin has prepared to ride out any financial storms, at least temporarily.
Still, Singh said that Russia’s government is facing “strategic failure”.
“You will begin to see a chilling effect in Russia,” he told reporters, calling Thursday’s sanctions “the most consequential ever levied on Russia and arguably the most consequential ever levied in history”.
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Biden is the epitome of weakness
@John Fahy: What would President Fahy have done differently? Start World War 3 maybe?
@Justin Gillespie: so you think Biden’s strategy was correct then? Working well, isn’t it?
@John Fahy: it’s the EU that are blocking decision to cut Swift
@John Fahy: and you would’ve done what exactly??
@Justin Gillespie: President Fahy would talk shte and hide under the bed
@John Fahy: Try to keep up
@John Fahy: Do you mean physically, if so how do you know? Also do you really think the US would be announcing everything that they’re doing. You’re giving Fahys a bad name with sweeping comments like that.
@Graham Manning: I would have matched the build up of Russian troops with NATO troops and let Putin know that an invasion would not be tolerated. He only invaded because he knew he would get away with it and he has.
@John Fahy: And set the stage for a world war. Well done you! Thank god you’re stronger than Biden anyway!!
@John Fahy: this would 100% lead to nuclear war. Putin explicitly said he’ll launch nukes if anything like that happened. It’s a catch 22 for the world and i have no clue what should be done. Crippling sanctions are really all that can be done or, we bite the bullet, go at him and get the all out nuclear war over with
@John Fahy: Putin might go nuclear if cornered
@John Fahy: what do you expect him to do. He is doing as the EU has done. Can’t send troops from any nation in to help the Ukrainians as it will for sure start WW3 and if Putin goes beyond the boundaries of the Ukraine it will inevitably start WW3.
Putin atm has a bottomless supply of money to bankroll this endeavour from the last 20 years and also the backing of the Chinese government. The only way that this will end is to have Putin discredited from within Russian Government and pigs will fly before then.
The absolute worst thing that can happen now is an assassination of Putin because the modicum of control that is there right now (Boundaries of the Ukraine) will be removed in total and he will be turned into a martyr
@O’Goire: correct
Trump would have sent US troops over to assist the Russians with their invasion
Cutting the internet routers to the east or put it under a very strong cyber wall,assets,communications..etc and hold their access hostage…i was once told by a Canadian engineer that the U.S has the ability to do this and to China too…but not sure if its the case these days…and let the western banks take the loss it ll be a good lesson not to deal with unknown unstable countries.
@Ian Richmond:Russia can cripple most of the EU if the came into the Irish sea,millions and millions of cables are down on the sea bed that are used for tech,and we haven’t even got a boat I’d say,after the hse attack,Ireland were told by the EU that security needs to be update,army navy all defense,like that’s going to happen,most of the people in the army are so badly paid that they have to get money from the social welfare to help with their wages..in Ireland the government won’t do anything until its too late
@Kate Peters: so build an irish Navy to fight off the Russian navy if they decide to cut some cables. I honestly hope you are about 6 years old.
@Kate Peters: I think Ireland would have the backs covered by the E.U’s navies…you ll be signed to some military arrangements through membership of the E.U.To cut the internet off in Russia would i think allow the citizens the room to rise up against the regime in the Kremlin.Though it would be highly unpredictable in its outcomes…it could be done covertly with no one claiming responsibilty for it…in Putin’s own denial style!
Let’s Go Brandon!
@Niall Power: imagine , as bad as he is they chose him over trumpeter trump !
They are not severe. They will shrug them off, there are only a handful of actual sanctions that will make a difference and the most obvious one has been ruled out. If SWIFT isn’t on the table then just say it clearly – Russian gas is too important to Germany for the EU to do anything meaningful.
Like the logic of sanctions simply does not hold water. Russia is a Petro State, it’s GDP is smaller than Florida. The West, particularly Germany are super reliant on the Russian Energy, without a doubt if Russia was to Sanction the west in terms of not selling it’s oil, it would have a much greater impact on the west than these symbolic sanctions on Russia, without a doubt the three hugging environmentalists policies the West have pursued have certainly played a part in Russian Aggression
@Thomas: If the West refused to buy Russian oil and gas then China would buy all of it at a discounted price..
Does anyone know why US won’t “yank” Russia from Swift?
@Luke: Might have to ask Europe: “Ukraine pleaded for yanking Russia from SWIFT on Thursday, but Biden said that the Western coalition could not come to an agreement.
“It is always an option but right now that’s not the position that the rest of Europe wishes to take,” he said.”
@Luke: because Russian money makes the world go around.
@Luke: read the article
@Mary McDonagh Faherty: That’s just Biden blaming all others to wash his hands clean. What a muppet. Sad to see a once great nation decimated like that.
@PJ Beatty: Germany have already ready said they won’t agree to it right now. Not much the US can do until Germany changes its mind.
@Luke: because Russia owes the west and mainly Europe billions. If swift goes that money goes which is effectively debt forgiveness.
@Luke: Worked with SWIFT have you? Think one country can just “yank” them from the messenger service?
Yanking. Seriously?
Didn’t think I’d agree with Trump on something, but this man is really sleepy Joe.
What international stage? Russia is already the largest country of the world, and it has the acquiescent approval – if not backing – of China. What does international even mean anymore?
Does Biden really imagine Putin and Lavrov wandering through Kremlin asking for pocket money as a result of these restrictions?
I am suit Putin is extremely worried about what other war criminals think of him.
From The Guardian. Saying the US stands with Ukraine because America is committed to democracy and the “rules-based international order” is at best a half-truth. The US helps dictatorships like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates commit war crimes in Yemen, employs economic sanctions that deny people from Iran to Venezuela to Syria life-saving medicines, rips up international agreements like the Iran nuclear deal and Paris climate accords, and threatens the international criminal court if it investigates the US or Israel.
It’s time for Ireland to send in the army rangers
@Noel Donohue: you mean our fishermen?
The need to bring in Swift into the EU and America,they need to cripple Putin and cut all the money off,because we’re not dealing with someone that’s going to stop,he wants Ukraine at all cost,because Kivi is the heart of Russia when it was the USSR,and he wants it.theres going to be more deaths and homes destroyed,while they sit on their hands waiting to see what he might do,get him asap
Biden is a president with no spine. He won yje elections because Trump is a nutcase. I was never a fan of JFK. but I must admite, he was not afraid to stand up against a man where the world was afraid for. The Nato and special EC. could have intervene militarily, because Ukraine is a business partner and belong to Europe. But EC and America take the easy way, not a Nato Member.. But now the problem start if Russia take Ukraine and after the Batic countries.
Russia is not going to worry too much about sanctions because China will provide them with whatever they want.The US over the last 5 years has done everything to make an enemy of China and so don’t expect China to support sanctions against China.
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