The US imposed April 6 full blocking sanctions on Russia's top banks and banned all new US investment in the country, an escalation in economic penalties that does not directly target energy.
¿No está registrado?
Reciba alertas diarias y avisos para suscriptores por correo electrónico; personalice su experiencia.
RegistroThe action freezes any assets of Sberbank, Russia's largest financial institution, and Alfa Bank, the largest private bank, touching the US financial system and prohibits US persons from doing business with them, the White House said.
A broad Treasury Department waiver allowing "energy-related transactions" applies to Sberbank and Alfa Bank until June 24.
President Joe Biden will sign an executive order to ban new investment in Russia by US persons "wherever located, which will further isolate Russia from the global economy," the White House said.
The move builds on decisions by more than 600 multinational businesses to exit Russia, it said, including energy producers and service companies.
"This ban will ensure that they stay out and can't rush back in as soon as they think there's money to be made," said Eddie Fishman, an Obama administration sanctions adviser now with the Center for a New American Security. "It will also coax any laggards to leave the Russian market now."
More blocking sanctions coming
The US plans to impose full blocking sanctions on key Russian state-owned enterprises and freeze any of their assets subject to US jurisdiction. The Treasury Department will announce the entities April 7.
The measures could increase penalties on the 13 major state-owned firms already under US foreign investment restrictions, including gas producer Gazprom; oil producer and refiner Gazprom Neft; pipeline operator Transneft; energy financier Gazprombank; agriculture financier Russian Agricultural Bank; shipping company Sovcomflot; and Russian Railways.
The latest measures are the biggest new round of sanctions since the US targeted the Central Bank of Russia and disconnected Russian banks from the international payment messaging system SWIFT Feb. 26, Fishman said.
Maria Shagina, visiting senior fellow at the US Center for Politics and Power, said the latest package is a "step-up in pressure," but not severe enough to match the "gravity of the situation," referring to allegations of war crimes in Ukraine.
"The ball is in the EU's court—to impose an oil and gas embargo," she said. "Keeping secondary sanctions in reserve, the US' role, for now, is burden-sharing in the energy sector."