By Ken Thomas
WASHINGTON -- The Biden administration announced new sanctions targeting Russian state-controlled media and banking executives, a ban on Americans providing accounting and management-consulting services and new export controls targeting the country's industrial sector.
The package will seek to clamp down on advertising dollars flowing into three Russian television stations, bar U.S. consulting firms from providing services to Russian companies seeking to evade sanctions and limit Russia's access to industrial engines, motors and bulldozers. It also targets more than 2,600 Russian and Belarusian military, including personnel involved in alleged war crimes in Bucha.
The U.S. also will sanction banking executives from Sberbank, the largest financial institution in Russia, and Gazprombank, a Russian bank that facilitates business by Russia's Gazprom, one of the world's largest natural-gas exporters, the administration said. The U.S. and its European allies have imposed a widening array of economic penalties on Russia in punishment for its invasion of Ukraine.
President Biden convened a roughly hourlong call Sunday with G-7 leaders to take stock of the allies' response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine. The leaders were joined by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky for discussions that were taking place ahead of Russia's commemoration Monday of the Soviet Union's victory in World War II.
In a statement released by the White House, G-7 leaders assured Mr. Zelensky "of our full solidarity and support" for Ukraine's defense and said the G-7 leaders had provided and pledged additional support exceeding $24 billion for 2022 and beyond, "in both financial and material means."
The statement said, "In the coming weeks, we will step up our collective short-term financial support to help Ukraine close financing gaps and deliver basic services to its people, while also developing options -- working with the Ukrainian authorities and international financial institutions -- to support long-term recovery and reconstruction."
The G-7 nations in the meeting committed to phasing out or banning the import of Russian oil, joining the U.S. The statement said it would be done "in a timely and orderly fashion, and in ways that provide time for the world to secure alternative supplies."
The Biden administration has said such a move would help further deny Mr. Putin the revenue he needs to conduct the war.
The EU has proposed an oil embargo on Russia. It was hoping to agree to the embargo by Monday but is still working to overcome resistance from Hungary. As part of its sixth round of sanctions, the EU has also proposed banning Russia's three leading broadcasters from being shown in the bloc and has asked member states to approve the delisting of Sberbank and two other banks from the Swift financial-messaging system.
The White House on Friday announced another round of military aid to Ukraine, including artillery rounds, counter-artillery radars and jamming equipment. Mr. Biden has requested an additional $33 billion from Congress to provide weapons and long-term economic and humanitarian assistance to the country.
The latest sanctions package will cover three of Russia's directly or indirectly state-controlled television stations, including Joint Stock Company Channel One Russia, Television Station Russia-1, and Joint Stock Company NTV Broadcasting Company. A senior administration official, calling the stations the "mouthpiece of the Kremlin," said the U.S. actions would cut off advertising dollars, broadcast technology, video cameras, microphones and equipment to the news stations broadcasting Russia's war effort.
The new steps will also bar American firms from providing accounting services, management-consulting and marketing services to Russian companies. The official said the restrictions would make it more difficult for Russian companies to evade sanctions.
The official said legal services aren't covered by the latest sanctions list but could be added at a later date if necessary.
The administration also intends to ratchet up sanctions on the Russian elite, taking steps to penalize eight executives with Sberbank and 27 executives with Gazprombank along with the Moscow Industrial Bank and its subsidiaries.
Russia's industrial sector will face export controls on a variety of equipment and items, including wood products, industrial engines, boilers, motors, fans and ventilation equipment and bulldozers.
The administration said it would also sanction Promtekhnologiya LLC, which produces rifles and weapons that have been used by the Russian military. The sanctions will also cover seven shipping companies that own or operate 69 vessels and a marine towing company, the administration said.
As part of the plan, the U.S. will issue about 2,600 visa restrictions on Russian and Belarusian officials who the administration said were undermining Ukraine's sovereignty. The U.S. was also issuing a new visa-restriction policy that would apply to Russian military officials and Russian-backed authorities thought to have been involved in human-rights abuses, the administration said.
Write to Ken Thomas at ken.thomas@wsj.com
$(END)$ Dow Jones Newswires
May 08, 2022 14:04 ET (18:04 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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