The U.S. and Japan Friday imposed new sanctions on Russia, in moves designed to constrain Russia\u2019s ability to continue funding its war on Ukraine. The U.S. sanctions, imposed through the Treasury Department and announced simultaneously through the State Department and the White House, are aimed at reducing Russia\u2019s revenue from energy production, and target two of Russia\u2019s largest oil producers, Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas. Those sanctioned include more than 200 entities and individuals involved in Russia\u2019s energy sector, including traders of Russian oil, Russia-based oilfield service providers, and Russian energy officials. The U.S. also designated 180 oil-carrying vessels as \u201cblocked property.\u201d Many are part of Russia\u2019s \u201cshadow fleet,\u201d used to covertly transport Russian oil around the world. In a statement issued by the White House, deputy national security adviser Daleep Singh said, \u201cThese measures will collectively drain billions of dollars per month from the Kremlin\u2019s war chest and, in doing so, intensify the costs and risks for Moscow to continue its senseless war.\u201d Likewise, Japan\u2019s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi announced Friday that Tokyo is freezing the assets of 33 organizations and 12 individuals, including a North Korean national, under the country\u2019s foreign exchange and foreign trade law. An additional 53 organizations from Russia, China and other countries became subject to export bans and other measures. The cabinet secretary said Japan was taking the actions in response to North Korea\u2019s support for the Russian war effort and Russia\u2019s use of third nations to avoid previous sanctions. From his X social media account, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude and called both measures \u201ca significant blow\u201d to Russia\u2019s ability to wage war. He said Japan\u2019s measures will help \u201climit Russia\u2019s access to critical microelectronics and [creates] additional obstacles for the production of missiles and drones.\u201d Zelenskyy said the U.S. sanctions on Russia\u2019s oil producing sector will disrupt Russia\u2019s entire supply chain. \u201cSuch actions send a clear message: Criminals must pay for their crimes,” Zelenskyy said. \u201cThe less revenue Russia earns from oil and other energy resources, the sooner peace will be restored.” Moscow, naturally, had a different reaction. During a telephone news briefing Friday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that through the sanctions, the outgoing Biden administration is trying \u201cto leave behind the most toxic legacy possible when it comes to bilateral relations\u201d between Russia and the United States. Peskov, referring to a new round of military aid approved by the U.S. and its European allies in the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on Thursday, also accused the outgoing Biden administration of trying to perpetuate the war in Ukraine before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Thursday that the United States will provide an additional $500 million in military aid to Ukraine. Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The U.S. and Japan Friday imposed new sanctions on Russia, in moves designed to constrain Russia\u2019s ability to continue funding its war on Ukraine. The U.S. sanctions, imposed through the Treasury Department and announced simultaneously through the State Department and the White House, are aimed at reducing Russia\u2019s revenue from energy production, and target two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":495,"featured_media":27362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[141],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/495"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}