Reuters reported that President Biden told reporters while departing for California that the United States will announce “a major package” on Feb. 23 of measures against Russia over Navalny’s death. Why? Because, as NSC spokesman John Kirby said Feb. 20, the United States sanctions “hold Russia accountable for what happened to Mr. Navalny.” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the sanctions would target “the country’s defense and industrial bases, along with sources of revenue for the economy.” Sullivan is still looking for “crippling the Russian economy and taking away its ability to grow” which he proclaimed on Jan. 25, 2022 in anticipation of a “Ukraine” war. The United States Treasury and State Department are attempting to sanction, in detail, every third-country bank or company which is allowing Russian trade of any kind to go on, or assisting in any way in Russia’s importing of “dual use” goods: an embargo. Though U.S. agencies have clearly not succeeded, they continue to intensify attacks on India’s ability to import from Russia and on China’s ability to import from or export to Russia, as well as other nations’ trade.
This vast sanctioning effort has some effects: France’s TotalEnergies and two small Japanese companies have canceled their orders in Russia’s new Arctic 2 LNG; 15 million barrels of Russian oil contracted by India has been halted on tankers in the sea off Korea; three U.A.E. banks are reviewing their relationships with Russian banks; three major Chinese banks—Bank of China, ICBC, and China Construction Bank—and a smaller one, Chouzhou Bank, have refused to accept payments from Russia because of U.S. sanctions.
Moreover, Europe having failed to come up with significant new sanctions thus far this week, “the Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson, is discussing sanctions over Navalny’s death on a trip to Europe this week, two sources familiar with the matter said.”
