Group of Seven leaders said new sanctions on Russia will be imposed as soon as tomorrow, while the U.S. and the U.K. called on the government in Moscow to help release of observers seized by rebels in eastern Ukraine.
The sanctions may target both individuals linked to President Vladimir Putin and Russian institutions, according to U.S. and European Union officials who asked not to be identified. Among those that may be hit are Russia’s third-largest lender, OAO Gazprombank, development lender Vnesheconombank, and Putin confidant Igor Sechin, the chief executive officer of OAO Rosneft (ROSN), according to people familiar with developments.
“We’ll be exerting additional pressure on the people closest to him,” Deputy White House National Security Adviser Tony Blinken said of Putin on CNN’s “State of the Union” program today. “We have to be deliberate about it.”
The U.S. sanctions may be announced tomorrow, according to an American official who asked not to be identified discussing internal deliberations. Representatives of the 28 EU nations will also meet tomorrow to widen a list of people subject to asset freezes and travel bans, an official from the bloc said yesterday. The sanctions will target 15 Russians in positions of power, another diplomat said. Both asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Russia has escalated tensions in Ukraine with “threatening” military maneuvers and by “taking no concrete steps” to implement an April 17 accord aimed at calming the crisis, according to a statement from the G-7 -- the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan.
“It’s going to be more effective if everybody signs on and everybody’s committed,” President Barack Obama told a news conference today in Putrajaya, Malaysia. “We’re going to be in a stronger position to deter Mr. Putin when he sees that the world is unified and the United States and Europe is unified, rather than this is just a U.S.-Russia conflict.”
Sanctions previously imposed by the U.S., the EU, Canada and other allies were aimed at a number of Putin’s associates and top officials, as well as St. Petersburg-based OAO Bank Rossiya.
To contact the reporters on this story: Margaret Talev in Putrajaya, Malaysia at mtalev@bloomberg.net; Daria Marchak in Kiev at dmarchak@bloomberg.net; David Lerman in Washington at dlerman1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net Eddie Buckle, Tom Kohn
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