The United States and Britain announced new sanctions on Friday to restrict Russia’s ability to continue the war in Ukraine, shortly before the start of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan.
The sanctions are expected to prevent “approximately 70 entities in Russia and other countries from receiving goods exported from the US, adding them to the Commerce Department’s blacklist,” a US official said, citing more than 300 new sanctions against “individuals, organizations, ships”. and aircraft” throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Other members of the G7, a group made up of Britain, France, Japan, the United States, Germany, Canada and Italy, are also preparing to “implement new sanctions and barriers to exports,” the official said.
Soon after, London unveiled new measures targeting Russia’s mining sector, including the diamond trade, which brings Moscow billions of dollars each year.
The G7 should work to cut off Russian military supplies, close sanctions loopholes, further reduce its dependence on Russian energy, continue to restrict Moscow’s access to the international financial system, and commit to freezing Russian assets until the end of the war, said the senior official of the Joe Biden government.
A European Union official had already said on Thursday that the leaders of the G7 countries would discuss sanctions against the Russian diamond trade.
The EU official stressed that India’s accession would be key to ensuring the impact of any sanctions regime in this area.
Russia exported almost 5,000 million dollars (4,600 million euros) in diamonds in 2021, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, an international trade data portal created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The G7 leaders will be able to make their case directly to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was invited to the Hiroshima summit along with the leaders of other major developing economies.
India also maintains close military ties with Russia and has never condemned Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, which took place on February 24, 2022.
The G7 summit officially kicks off this afternoon (in Lisbon tomorrow) after the leaders’ visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
Heads of State and Government will lay wreaths in front of the cenotaph commemorating the approximately 140,000 people killed by the US atomic bomb on August 6, 1945.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky will address the summit via video conference over the weekend.
Source: TSF
