White House reveals new batch of sanctions against Russia

• 

A US senior administration official told reporters, on Sunday, that the new round of US sanctions against Russia goes into effect today.

"These sanctions we are announcing go into effect in the US today, or in some cases, they get published to the Federal Register tomorrow," the official said.

Furthermore, the official added that the US is not introducing full-blocking sanctions against Gazprombank, stressing that they will only target some executives to create a “chilling threat effect”.

"This is not a full block. We are not freezing the assets of Gazprombank or prohibiting any transactions with Gazprombank. What we are signaling is that Gazprombank is not a safe haven, and so we are sanctioning some of their top business executives… to create a chilling effect," the official said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has lately urged foreign countries to open accounts at Gazprombank to pay for Russian gas.

The official added: "Today we are banning the provision of accounting services, management control team, marketing all services that are used to operate multinational businesses but also to potentially create workarounds from sanctions."

It is worth mentioning that additional US sanctions will include restrictions on Russia's industrial sector.

"These new controls will further limit Russia's access to items and revenue that could support its military capabilities," the White House said.

A senior administration official told reporters on Sunday that the latest round of US sanctions against Russia over Ukraine targets three major Russian TV stations, including Channel One, Russia-1, and the NTV broadcasting company.

The United States has suspended general licenses for exports of special nuclear material, byproduct material, and deuterium to Russia as part of its latest sanctions package, according to the Fact Sheet.

"The United States also sanctioned eight executives from Sberbank– the largest financial institution in Russia and uniquely important to the Russian economy, holding about a third of all bank assets in Russia; twenty-seven executives from Gazprombank – a prominent Russian bank facilitating business by Russia’s Gazprom, one of the largest natural gas exporters in the world; and Moscow Industrial Bank and its ten subsidiaries," the Fact Sheet concluded.

Western countries have imposed increasingly broad sanctions, including those targeting individuals, banks, businesses, and major state-owned enterprises, as well as exports.

Simultaneously, experts warn that the hysteric batches of sanctions will have a devastating effect on the economy of western countries.