US confirms new Russia sanctions will target officials, financial institutions

Washington [US], April 6 (ANI)

The United States has said it will announce a fresh round of sanctions against Russia later this week that will target government officials, financial institutions and state-owned enterprises.

"You can expect, as many of you have reported, that they will target Russian government officials, their family members, Russian owned financial institutions, [and] also state-owned enterprises," White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said during a press briefing on Tuesday. Psaki said the new US sanctions aim to cause more uncertainty and challenges to Russia's financial system amid Moscow's "special military operation" in Ukraine.

"Russia does not have unlimited resources, especially now given the crippling sanctions we have put in place and they are going to be forced to choose between draining remaining valuable dollar reserves or new revenue coming in or default," Psaki said during a press briefing.

"[T]he biggest part of our objective here is to deplete the resources that Putin has to continue his war against Ukraine and obviously causing more uncertainty and challenges to their financial system is a part of that."

Psaki further explained how the US will no longer allow Russia to pay down its debt using dollars stockpiled at American banks, a shift aimed at piling additional pressure on Moscow.

The goals of the move were, in part, to deplete Russia's financial resources, the White House press secretary said.

"The goal is to force them to make a choice. So Russia does not have unlimited resources, especially now, given the crippling sanctions we've put in place and they are going to be forced to choose between draining remaining valuable dollar reserves, or new revenue coming in, or default," Psaki said.

She continued, "The biggest part of our objective here is to deplete the resources that Putin has to continue his war against Ukraine, and obviously causing more certainty - uncertainty -- and challenges to their financial system is a part of that but it is forcing them to choose those options and to also deplete the resources, making it more difficult for him to continue to fight the war."