{"id":101870,"date":"2022-02-23T08:24:44","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T13:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=101870"},"modified":"2022-02-23T08:27:31","modified_gmt":"2022-02-23T13:27:31","slug":"biden-cuts-off-russia-from-international-financing-over-ukraine-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2022\/02\/23\/biden-cuts-off-russia-from-international-financing-over-ukraine-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Cuts Off Russia from International Financing Over Ukraine Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"VOA \u2014 THE WHITE HOUSE \u2014 <\/span>U.S. President Joe Biden cut off the Russian government from international financing on Tuesday and imposed sanctions on two large banks, declaring that its actions in Ukraine were \u201ca flagrant violation of international law.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a brief White House speech, Biden said Putin\u2019s order late Monday to send troops across the eastern Ukraine border into the Luhansk and Donetsk regions was \u201cthe beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.\u201d Hours earlier, Putin declared the regions as independent, no longer part of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Biden pointedly asked, \u201cWho in the Lord\u2019s name does Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called countries on territory that belonged to his neighbors?\u201d<\/p>\n

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U.S. President Joe Biden provides an update on Russia and Ukraine during remarks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Feb. 22, 2022.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The condemnation came from many other U.S. allies and multilateral institutions, including from United Nations Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, who said Tuesday, \u201cLet me be clear: The decision of the Russian Federation to recognize the so-called \u201cindependence\u201d of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions is a violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biden also ordered the movement of infantry troops and air support from elsewhere in Europe closer to Russia\u2019s borders, as the region girds for possible confrontation.<\/p>\n

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A map of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Biden said additional U.S. forces were deploying to the Baltics to \u201csend an unmistakable message that the United States, together with our allies, will defend every inch of NATO territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest deployments include a battalion of more than 800 troops deploying from Italy to the Baltic region, eight F-35 fighter jets and 20 Apache attack helicopters from Germany to the Baltics, and 12 Apaches from Greece to Poland.<\/p>\n

But Biden stressed, \u201cThese are totally defensive moves on our part. We have no intention of fighting Russia.\u201d He added, \u201cNone of us should be fooled; none of us will be fooled\u201d by Putin\u2019s intentions in deploying what he characterized as \u201cpeacekeeping forces\u201d into the one-time Soviet republic.<\/p>\n

For now, the administration says its strongest weapon is sanctions aimed at Russia\u2019s power players. The U.S. leader said his sanctions would cut off the Russian government \u201cfrom raising money from the West,\u201d and vowed that Russia \u201cwill pay an even steeper price (with more sanctions) if its forces advance further\u201d west into Ukraine.<\/p>\n

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FILE – The logo of Russia’s state development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) is seen on top of a building in central Moscow, Russia, April 22, 2016.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The sanctions announced Tuesday target three men in Putin\u2019s inner circle: Aleksandr Bortnikov, head of the Federal Security Service; Sergei Kiriyenko, a top official in Putin\u2019s office, and Peter Fradkov, chairman of Promsvyazbank.<\/p>\n

A senior administration official told reporters that the sanctions target two banks especially close to Russia\u2019s leadership, including one \u2014 Vnesheconombank \u2014 that holds more than $50 billion in assets. Daleep Singh, deputy national security adviser for international economics, described it as \u201ca glorified piggy bank for the Kremlin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistake \u2014 this is only the sharp edge of the pain we can inflict,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Some analysts say the administration could have done more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sanctions announced (Monday) will have almost no impact, either in economic or political terms,\u201d Chris Miller, a Russia analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, told VOA. \u201cThe sanctions announced today \u2014 notably the sovereign debt sanctions \u2014 will have a minor, negative macroeconomic impact on Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Biden also met at the White House with Ukraine\u2019s foreign minister and \u201dreiterated the readiness of the United States, in close cooperation with our Allies and partners, to respond swiftly and decisively to any further Russian aggression against Ukraine,\u201d the White House said.<\/p>\n

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A woman attends a rally to protest after Moscow’s decision to formally recognize two Russian-backed regions of eastern Ukraine as independent at the industrial city of Mariupol, located about 20 kilometers from the rebel-controlled areas in eastern Ukrain<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

In a speech at the Kremlin on Monday, Putin declared that Ukraine was never an independent state and was part of a greater Russian sphere of influence, not a \u201cpuppet\u201d of the West.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe directly attacked Ukraine\u2019s right to exist,\u201d Biden said of Putin, adding that there is \u201cstill time to avert the worst-case scenario\u201d of a full-on invasion through diplomatic settlement of the crisis.<\/p>\n

But, Biden concluded, \u201cWe\u2019re going to judge Russia by its actions, not its words.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biden warned Americans, \u201cDefending freedom will have costs,\u201d with higher gasoline prices as world oil prices surge with the threat of further violence in Ukraine and an expanded Russian invasion.<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s implementation of long-promised sanctions came as other Western allies quickly moved Tuesday to punish Russia with sanctions of their own.<\/p>\n

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz halted authorization for Nord Stream 2, the completed but not yet operational natural gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, at least temporarily curbing potential fuel deliveries to Germany but also depriving Moscow of revenue from the pipeline.<\/p>\n

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Parliament he had sanctioned five Russian banks and three \u201chigh net worth\u201d executives, freezing their assets in Britain and cutting off financial transactions with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first tranche, the first barrage, of what we are prepared to do,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

Russian lawmakers on Tuesday gave Putin permission to use military force outside the country, possibly presaging a broader attack on Ukraine<\/p>\n

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that \u201cRussian troops are on Ukrainian soil\u201d in Donetsk and Luhansk but that it was not a \u201cfully fledged invasion.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A little girl waits along with people crossing to Ukrainian government controlled areas from pro-Russian separatists controlled territory in Stanytsia Luhanska, the only crossing point open daily, in the Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, Feb. 22, 2022.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

For weeks, the U.S. and European allies have warned of swift and severe consequences for Russia if it launched an invasion of Ukraine, a possibility viewed with growing concern as Russia deployed 150,000 troops and military equipment along its border with Ukraine and in Belarus, a Russian ally to the north of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Russian tanks entered eastern Ukraine\u2019s Donbas region overnight, Western diplomats and residents in Donetsk confirmed to VOA. It was unclear if their presence constituted significant movement of Russian forces or instead movement of Russian-backed militias already in eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Biden issued an initial set of sanctions Monday in response to Putin\u2019s recognition of the breakaway regions and his order to deploy what he called Russian peacekeeping forces.<\/p>\n

A senior Biden administration official told reporters that the first round of sanctions was specifically tied to those actions and did not represent the \u201cswift and severe economic measures we have been preparing in coordination with allies and partners should Russia further invade Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s Monday order prohibited new investment, trade and financing by Americans in Luhansk and Donetsk after Putin declared them independent from Ukraine.<\/p>\n

From a desk at the Kremlin, Putin delivered a nearly hourlong televised address to the Russian people on Monday, outlining his version of the history of national boundaries in Europe and the 1990s breakup of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

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Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, chairs a Security Council meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 21, 2022.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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Putin also said there was \u201cno prospect\u201d for peace to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine, but Moscow has contended it has no plans to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis wasn\u2019t a speech just about Russia\u2019s security,\u201d a senior U.S. administration official said. \u201cIt was an attack on the very idea of a sovereign and independent Ukraine. He (Putin) made clear that he views Ukraine historically as part of Russia. And he made a number of false claims about Ukraine that seemed designed to excuse possible military action. This was a speech to the Russian people to justify war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carla Babb and Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VOA \u2014 THE WHITE HOUSE \u2014 U.S. President Joe Biden cut off the Russian government from international financing on Tuesday and imposed sanctions on two large banks, declaring that its actions in Ukraine were \u201ca flagrant violation of international law.\u201d In a brief White House speech, Biden said Putin\u2019s order late Monday to send troops […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101871,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recposts"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101870"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101873,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101870\/revisions\/101873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}