The Treasury Department announced on Tuesday that the US and some major economic allies would freeze imports of Russian gold, Moscow’s biggest export outside the energy sector.
The expanded sanctions represent the latest effort by the US and its Group of Seven partners to target Russian President Vladimir Putin and isolate the country’s economy from international commerce and payment systems.
The United Kingdom, Canada and Japan are joining the effort.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen described the multilateral approach to imposing economic penalties as crippling for Moscow and harsher punishment for Putin’s months-long invasion of Ukraine.
The Treasury also announced on Tuesday that its penalties now target an additional 70 Russian companies and other entities that are critical to the country’s defense industrial and manufacturing base.
“The broad multilateral commitments and actions taken by G7 members this week further undermine the Russian Federation’s access to technology that is critical to their military,” Yellen said in a press release. “Targeting Russia’s defense industry would undermine Putin’s capabilities and further hamper his war against Ukraine, which is already plagued by poor morale, broken supply chains and logistical failures.”
The Treasury said the ban against mining in Russia does not apply to the metal that was located outside Russia before Tuesday’s announcement.
The decision came as President Joe Biden and other world leaders from the Group of Seven gathered for meetings in Germany. Countries sympathetic to Ukraine have already closed most trade with Moscow, frozen hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Russian funds held in foreign accounts and forced Russian banks to use the global messaging system known as SWIFT. banned from use.
Russian officials and oligarchs were suspected of ramping up gold production to blunt the impact of global sanctions and economic penalties that have left Moscow bankrupt.
Still, it is unclear how big an impact the move would have on the Russian war in Ukraine.
The US and its allies have struggled to maintain economic pressure on Putin, without causing much backlash in the face of their own economies and continued purchases of Russian goods by China.
Global oil and gasoline prices The increase rose sharply in the first half of 2022, indicating that Beijing’s purchases of Russian petroleum amounted to huge profits for Moscow, even as European and US consumers balk at hefty prices at gas stations.
US National Average Price for a Gallon of Regular Gasoline was $4.88 on TuesdayThe record hit $5.016 in the first month.