US to ban Russian diamond and vodka imports

The US ban on key Russian imports will deny Mr Putin more than $1bn in revenue, the White House said, while the ban on US exports of luxury goods hits trade worth about $550m per year.

That is just a fraction of the roughly $28bn worth of trade the US and Russia exchanged in 2019.

Mr Biden promised further measures, including tightening sanctions on oligarchs and their families.

“We’re going to continue to squeeze Putin,” Mr Biden said. “He is the aggressor and… must pay the price.”

Economists say the sanctions previously announced will throw Russia into a severe economic recession this year. But it is not clear that the economic disarray has altered Mr Putin’s military ambitions.

At a press conference on Thursday, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki was asked when the weight of the sanctions might lead to a change in Mr Putin’s actions.

“Our objective of course is to bring an end to this conflict, she said. “In terms of when that will happen, I’m unfortunately not in the mind of President Putin…. When it will change his calculus, I can’t give a prediction of that.”

Source: ghextractives.com