US will announce new sanctions against Russia at G7 summit

The United States is planning to expand sanctions against Russia. The United States and its partners are preparing to further pressure Russia through a series of tougher sanctions and export controls to weaken its combat capabilities by cutting off Russia’s access to Western technology. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday (June 11) that the United States will announce a series of “more impactful” export control measures on Russia at the G7 meeting, saying that these measures “will continue to increase the cost of Russia’s war machine.” According to the Financial Times, the U.S. Treasury Department is expected to significantly expand its secondary sanctions program on financial institutions such as Russian banks this week, treating any financial institution that does business with sanctioned Russian entities as directly cooperating with Russian military-industrial enterprises. The measure will expand the scope of sanctions issued by an executive order issued by the White House in December last year, which authorizes the Treasury Department to impose secondary sanctions on foreign financial institutions found to be associated with or acting on behalf of any of the approximately 1,200 Russian-related sanctioned entities. This week, the sanctions list will increase to more than 4,500, including Russia’s largest banks such as Sberbank and VTB.