The G7 meeting today was primarily an effort to batten down the hatches on economically crippling Russia. As the White House statement put it: The G7 pledged to block transactions involving the Russian central bank’s gold reserves to hamper any Moscow bid to circumvent Western sanctions. The allies will work jointly “to blunt Russia’s ability to fund... Putin’s war, including by making clear that any transaction involving gold... is covered by existing sanctions.” In this brave new world, not only bank deposits are to be seized, but gold, if coming from Russia, is to be spurned.
The G7 statement included a warning to Russia not to use biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons in Ukraine. “We warn against any threat of the use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons or related material.” ABC News asked Biden, at his press conference following the G7 meeting, whether a Russian chemical weapons attack could trigger a military confrontation between the US and/or NATO and Russia. Biden only said that they would make that decision at the time.