A senior US official explained during a conference call that the United States wanted to create “a vicious circle” by accumulating measures since the start of the invasion of Ukraine. (Photo: 123RF)
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This text brings together all the reactions since the invasion of Russia in Ukraine for the day of April 06, 2022. It will be updated during the day. To find all our coverage on the conflict, it’s here.
11:07 am | WASHINGTON — The United States on Wednesday announced a new round of economic and financial sanctions it calls “devastating” against Russia, targeting big banks and the children of Vladimir Putin, according to a White House statement.
A senior US official explained during a conference call that the United States wanted to create “a vicious circle” by accumulating measures since the start of the invasion of Ukraine.
“We are starving (Russia) of capital, we are starving it of technology, we are starving it of talent and all the measures we are taking create a spiral which is accelerating as Putin continues to escalate” military , he assured, on condition of anonymity.
In addition to banning all new investments in Russia, a measure known since Tuesday, the American executive will impose the most severe constraints it can apply to the essential public bank Sberbank, which according to Washington controls a third of the assets. banks in Russia, and the country’s largest private bank, Alfa Bank.
This means that these institutions, already targeted by less severe sanctions, will undergo a freezing of all their assets “in contact with the American financial system”, and that they will be prohibited from any transaction with American actors, according to the White House. .
The United States will also sanction “large strategic public companies”, but did not immediately reveal the list of companies concerned.
The US executive, however, indicated that these measures intended to make Russia a “pariah” of the globalized economy would make exceptions for the energy sector – the main source of income for the regime of Vladimir Putin. .
The White House repeats on each occasion that any announcement of sanctions is closely coordinated, in particular with the Europeans, who are very dependent on Russian gas.
Washington will also sanction the “adult children” of Vladimir Putin. A senior American official specified that these were the two daughters of the Russian president, therefore now subject to a freeze on their assets in the United States and cut off from the American financial system.
These daughters of Vladimir Putin are known in the Russian media as “Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova”.
The same treatment will be applied to the wife and daughter of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, as well as to members of the Russian Security Council, including former President and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
Hungary ready to pay for Russian gas in rubles, says Orban
11:01 am | Budapest — Hungary said it was ready on Wednesday to pay for Russian gas in rubles if necessary, contrary to other European Union (EU) countries which refused this request from Moscow.
“We don’t see any problem in paying in rubles. If that’s what the Russians want, we’ll pay in rubles,” Prime Minister Viktor Orban told a press conference in Budapest.
Moscow has threatened to cut off gas supplies to “unfriendly” countries that refuse to pay in rubles, a move that would mainly affect the heavily dependent EU.
Hungary is the first country to break the ranks of European unity on the subject, the other countries having refused any payment in rubles to Moscow, which seeks in this way to support its currency.
A little earlier, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto had estimated that the EU had no role to play in the supply of gas, “governed by a bilateral contract”.
“The will of the European Commission to have a common response from importing countries does not seem necessary to us”, he declared.
“A technical solution” to implement the conversion must be found by the first payment obligation to the Russian giant Gazprom at the end of May, he said, while Hungary is heavily dependent on Russian energy supplies.
The European Commission proposed Tuesday to the Twenty-Seven to toughen the sanctions against Moscow, by stopping their purchases of Russian coal, which represent 45% of imports from the EU, and by closing European ports to Russian ships.
But a possible embargo on Russian oil (25% of European oil purchases) and Russian gas (45% of EU gas imports) is the subject of bitter discussions between member states.
In addition to Budapest, Berlin and Vienna have publicly expressed their reluctance.
US indicts Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev for sanctions violations
10:49 am | WASHINGTON — Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev has been indicted in the United States for violating U.S. sanctions imposed after Russia invaded Ukraine, U.S. Justice Secretary Merrick Garland announced Wednesday.
The billionaire had been identified by the US Treasury as one of the main sources of funding for Russian supporters of separatism in Crimea and to provide material support for the self-proclaimed Donetsk “republic” in eastern Ukraine, said added Mr. Garland.
“After being sanctioned by the United States, Malofeev attempted to evade sanctions by using accomplices to secretly acquire and run media outlets across Europe,” he explained at a press conference. hurry.
This is the first indictment of a Russian oligarch in the United States since the Russian invasion, said Deputy Justice Minister Lisa Monaco.
Konstantin Malofeev is already targeted by European sanctions, Brussels also seeing him as a fundraiser for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Merrick Garland also announced the “disruption” of a global criminal network of computers infected with malware (“botnet”) controlled by Russian military intelligence (GRU).
“The Russian government recently used similar infrastructure to attack Ukrainian targets,” he said. “Fortunately, we were able to shut down this botnet before it could be used.”
“Thanks to our close collaboration with our international partners, we were able to detect the infection of thousands of networked computers” and “we were able to disable the GRU control on these computers before the botnet could be used as a weapon “, specified the American minister.
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