Early Sunday morning, a senior administration official at the White House explained that in order to “strengthen Ukraine’s position on the battlefield and at the negotiating table,” the U.S. and EU are coordinating their activities on levying additional sanctions against Russia.
After reviewing sanctions on financial services (including, implicitly, stealing Russia’s reserves) and on major exports such as oil, the new sanctions were unveiled, in five categories: professional services, broadcasting services, industrial engines, visa restrictions, and bank executive sanctions.
No longer will Russian firms be able to avail themselves of US or UK accounting firms. The major three TV stations in Russia will no longer be able to run ads from U.S. companies, nor will they be able to purchase broadcasting equipment or software. Industrial engines (explicitly mentioned was agricultural equipment producer John Deere) may no longer be sold. And some 2,600 Russian and Belarussian officials will no longer be able to receive a visa for that family visit to Disneyland they were probably planning.
Gazprombank, while not directly sanctioned, has seen its top executives added to a visa restriction list.
When asked what Russia would have to do in order to have the sanctions reversed, the official was not exactly forthcoming. (Do they actually expect this policy to end, or is a permanent sanctions regime the intent?) The three-part answer:
“One, we would never do a deal on sanctions rollback without Ukraine at the head of the table.
