The White House Sunday announced that it had sanctioned multiple Russian bank executives, barred US assets from three Russian television stations and banned accounting services from US citizens to anyone in Russia. These sanctions represent an effort by the US to exert financial pressure on Russia in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and to limit the spread of Russian misinformation.
Among those sanctioned are eight executives of Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, and 27 executives of Gazprombank, Russia’s third-largest. A senior administration official, speaking in a teleconference, said, although the banks themselves were not targeted, “we don’t want Gazprombank to be seen as a safe haven, and that’s why we’ve taken action against … its top people.”
The US also unveiled sanctions against three major Russian television stations: Channel One Russia, Russia-1 and NTV. US companies will not be permitted to advertise on these channels and will not be able to provide these stations with the technology they rely on to broadcast.
US citizens are also now prohibited from providing “accounting … management consulting, [and] marketing” services to anyone residing in the Russian Federation. The White House noted that “These services are key to Russian companies and elites building wealth, thereby generating revenue for Putin’s war machine, and to trying to hide that wealth and evade sanctions.”
White House officials also imposed export controls on a number of commodities which could be used to aid Russia’s invasion, including wood, engines and bulldozers.
These sanctions come on the heel of multiple accusations of war crimes against Russia. In April Canada labeled Russia’s actions in Ukraine a “genocide.” Among the reported atrocities, the massacre in Bucha has generated a large amount of international attention with Ukrainian prosecutors implicating 10 Russian soldiers in mass killings and the torture of civilians.