WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced new sanctions against Russia on Tuesday, warning that President Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine amounted to “the beginning of a Russian invasion.”
“We still believe that Russia is poised to go much further and launch a massive military attack against Ukraine,” Biden said.
The sanctions will target the Russian bank VEB and Russia’s sovereign debt, cutting the country off from Western financing. Biden said the sanctions will also target Russian elites and their family members in an effort to make sure people close to Putin “share the pain.”
Biden also said that he was moving some U.S. troops and equipment that are already in Europe to strengthen Baltic allies, but that it was a “defensive” move. “We have no intention of fighting Russia,” Biden said.
More than 150,000 Russian troops continue to surround Ukraine, Biden said, and Moscow has positioned military equipment, medical and blood supplies near the border. “You don’t need blood unless you plan on starting a war,” Biden said.
Putin on Monday formally recognized the independence of two Moscow-backed breakaway regions in the eastern part of Ukraine and ordered troops into the territories to carry out what he called “peacekeeping functions.”
The order was seen by the United States and its European allies as a dramatic provocation after weeks of warning that Moscow was trying to create a pretext to invade, and it raised concerns that Russia could soon move farther into Ukrainian territory.
“As Russia contemplates this next move, we have our next move prepared as well,” Biden warned. “Russia will pay an even steeper price if it continues its aggression, including additional sanctions.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced earlier Tuesday that he would halt the regulatory approval process for Nord Stream 2, a pipeline that bypasses Ukrainian transit infrastructure to deliver Russian gas directly to Germany. During a visit to the White House this month, Scholz had been unwilling to clearly commit to stopping the pipeline if Russia invaded.
Russia’s status as one of the world’s largest energy suppliers means a disruption of supplies coming from the country could drive up gas prices in the U.S., amid the highest inflation rate in decades.
Russia is also a major global supplier of raw materials, such as aluminum, nickel, palladium and copper, and any disruption to the supply of those materials could rattle an already strained global supply chain.
Biden cautioned Americans that “defending freedom” will have a cost at home, but said his administration was closely monitoring the global energy supply “to limit the pain American people are feeling at the gas pump.”
“I’m going to take robust action to make sure the pain of our sanctions is targeted at the Russian economy — not ours,” Biden said.
Biden on Friday warned that Russia could attack Ukraine’s capital within days, but said that there was still room for diplomacy if Putin wanted to “de-escalate and return to the negotiating table.”
The chances of finding a diplomatic resolution looked increasingly narrower Tuesday, with a planned meeting later this week between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov “in real jeopardy,” according to a senior Biden administration official.
Biden said Tuesday that he would judge Russia by its actions, not just its words.
“I’m hoping diplomacy is still available,” he said.
