US to announce new Russia sanctions at G7 summit
The U.S. is set to announce new sanctions against Russia during this week's G7 summit in Italy, White House spokesman John Kirby said on June 11.
In comments reported by Reuters, Kirby also said Washington will be imposing further export controls that would be "impactful" and target entities and networks helping Russia to fight its war in Ukraine.
"We're going to continue to drive up costs for the Russian war machine," Kirby said.
Western countries have imposed extensive economic restrictions against Moscow over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, seeking to curb its state revenue and prevent it from obtaining key technologies needed for the war effort.
Russia has sought to dodge these sanctions via various third-party entities in China, Central Asia, Turkey, or the United Arab Emirates.
The Russian central bank's SPFS system, established in 2014, became an important tool for these transactions after Russia was disconnected from SWIFT in 2022.
Kyiv's partners have recently focused their efforts on banks suspected of facilitating these transactions, which led to several lenders to tighten curbs and subsequently to a drop in Russian imports.
U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo recently visited Kyiv to hold talks with top Ukrainian officials on forthcoming plans to strengthen sanctions against Russia.
Chris York
