For weeks President Joe Biden of the United States has been warning Russia to detour from its plan of invasion of Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron made back-2-back calls to Biden and Russian President Putin for a truce. Vice President of United States Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken flew to attend the Munich Security Conference to halt the war. Several attempts were made to calm the anger-stricken Putin down.
All efforts went in vain when he finally invaded Ukraine on Thursday 24th February attacking from various regions.
His actions have now called for severe and strictest sanctions any country has ever faced. We have listed briefly for you. Read along.
The US government has imposed different sets of sanctions on Russia. It has targeted its major banks like VTB, it has cut its access to US capital markets, It has also frozen Russian assets close to 1 trillion US dollars.
- The US will stop exporting its technology to Russia. Putin will find it very difficult to build defense ships
- Several Russian state-backed companies will be barred. Industries like mining and transportation will take a massive hit.
- The US is also targeting the Russian elite close to Vladimir Putin, oligarch’s assets in the US will be out of reach to them.
- All of the above-mentioned sanctions and the 3-day ban so far will have lasting effects on Putin’s economy. Putin’s long-term economic ambitions will also be affected.
Boris Johnson has listed the strictest sanctions on Russia which are as follows.
- All major Russian banks will be frozen. No access whatsoever including major banks like Central Bank of Russia, VTB
- Britain will freeze the oligarch’s assets in the UK
- No Russian transactions are to be cleared via UK banks
- Russian firms cannot raise capital or borrow from UK’s capital markets
- 100 new individuals assets to be freezed since the fall of the Soviet Union (3 decades ago)
- Putin’s son-in-law targeted
- Russia’s flagship carrier Aeroflot to be banned to land in the UK
- Export of dual-use Military equipment is also completely banned
- The UK also bans all high-tech items and oil refinery equipment to Russia
- There will be a limit on the deposit amounts that Russians can make to UK bank accounts.
- Similar sanctions have been slapped onto Belarus for assisting Russia in invading Ukraine.
Boris Johnson also mentioned that there is a potential to cut Russia off of SWIFT transactions in the UK.
Now the least effective sanctions on Russia are the ones coming from Japan. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stated the following sanctions.
- Japan will stop issuing and distributing Russian bonds in its financial markets
- They will no longer do any business with the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk
- They would suspend giving visas to certain individuals of the Donbas region and freeze their assets
- They will impose import and export bans on goods coming and going to Donetsk and Luhansk
- Japan will work in tandem with the G7 and other international communities to take immediate actions
However, Michael Penn, a journalist reported to News Asia Channel, that these sanctions will have zero effect on Russia. As Japan has restricted visas and financial transactions from individuals of the separatist regions; Japan anyways doesn’t have any business with these regions. What about the whole of Russia?
Japan is the most law-abiding country and just to show that it has imposed sanctions and has aligned itself with the US intentions. These will have zero effect on Russia. And Japan just wants to strengthen its US-Japanese alliance so that it gets United States backing should Japan ever fall into territorial security issues with China.
For now, Japan has enough reserves of oil and Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) and sanctioning Russia will not affect its energy requirements in the short term.
12% of Japan’s thermal coal and 1/10th of its LNG came from Russia in 2021.
Australia has specific sanctions on Russia. About 8 prominent members of the Russian Federation’s Security Council have been sanctioned and major banks will also be restricted completely from dealing with Australian banks which are the Russian State Development Bank, the military bank Promsvyazbank, VEB, IS Bank, Rossiya, the Black Sea bank, the General Bank.
Scott Morrison, Australian PM said, ” We always stand up to bullies and we stand in unison with all our partners who commonly agree that this act of Russia was absolutely unacceptable.”
Canada has restricted its citizens from carrying out any financial transaction with the Donbas region. It has barred its citizens from purchasing Russian sovereign debt; major state-backed banks of Russia have been halted completely to enter Canadian capital markets.
PM Trudeau has authorized additional troops of about 460 of the Canadian armed forces to operation re-assurance. This will involve sending more troops to Latvia. He has also ordered the deployment of an additional frigate and maritime patrol aircraft.
Canada is re-assuring its commitment to NATO and to promote peace and stability in Europe.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Russia has chosen to invade Ukraine and has violated the United Nations Charter and the founding principles of the European and international order. France will back Ukraine in all possible ways.
Sanctions on Russia will be proportionate to the aggression it is guilty of.
- On the military and economic level as well as field of energy, France will not show any mercy towards Russia
France will support Ukraine and will fulfill its responsibility to protect the sovereignty and security of its European allies.
The European Union has come up with a series of detailed sanctions on Russia. The head of the EU commission Ursula Leyen said that Russia will be completely restricted from carrying out any financial transactions and will be barred from entering the most prominent capital markets.
- EU will be targeting up to 70% of the Russian banking market
- Key state-owned companies including the defense field will be restricted complete access and Russia’s borrowing costs will increase inflation and gradually erode Russia’s industrial foothold
- EU targets the Russian elite by curbing their deposits so that they cannot hide their money in the safe havens of Europe
- EU targets the energy sector, the most important economy which benefits the Russian nation.
- EU’s ban on oil refinery equipment will make Russia impossible to upgrade its oil refineries, which has bought Russia 24 billion euros of revenue in 2019.
- EU bans all aircraft spare parts and equipment to Russian airlines. This will reduce Russia’s economy and affect Russian connectivity. 3/4th of Russia’s commercial air fleets are built in the European Union, US and Canada.
- EU limits Russia’s access to crucial technology that builds its future like semiconductors, lasers and high-tech communication equipment.
- Visas to diplomats, certain elite groups, business people will no longer be given and will no longer be allowed to enter European Union.
- EU will reduce its dependency on Russian oil & gas, fossil fuels and coal supplies for its energy usage.
European Union in the past 3 weeks has identified replaceable vendors for its energy requirements and wants to strategically enter into renewable resources.
Over the past 20 years, Russia has been under sanctions for several violations and the current sanctions will not affect it much. Russia wears these sanctions like medals and is feeling as if they are martyrs for national interest in the Ukraine war.