In a further measure to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, the United States cut off transactions involving the Central Bank of Russia, the National Wealth Fund, and the Finance Ministry of the Russian Federation on Monday.
U.S. officials said that on Monday as new economic sanctions were imposed by the U.S. and its allies on Russia’s central bank and other key sources of wealth, they said the US sanctions will likely increase inflation in Russia, weaken its purchasing power, and disrupt investments.
Putin is triggering this vicious feedback loop through his own choices and making it worse with his own aggression, a senior administration official said.
Last week, the United States and its allies imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russia, including sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian country’s biggest lenders.
These sanctions came after Russia’s forces invaded Ukraine, the biggest incident in European history after world war II between two countries attacking each other.
According to a senior U.S. official, Monday’s move “immobilized” any assets held by Russia’s central bank in the United States, preventing them from accessing hundreds of billions of dollars in assets.
A statement on Monday reported that the U.S. Treasury Department had also imposed sanctions on the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the important sovereign wealth fund in Russia.
