By Daphne Psaledakis and Simon Lewis
WASHINGTON The United States and its partners on Friday announced new penalties aimed at punishing Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, intensifying what is already one of the harshest sanctions efforts ever implemented.
The United States targeted Russia's sanctions evasion, future energy revenues and military-industrial supply chains in Friday's action, which imposed sanctions on more than 300 targets.
The move comes on the first day of the three-day G7 summit in Japan and marks the latest sanctions and export controls targeting Moscow, which have hit thousands of targets and imposed steep curbs on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine last year.
"Today’s actions will further tighten the vise on (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s ability to wage his barbaric invasion and will advance our global efforts to cut off Russian attempts to evade sanctions," U.S. Treasury Department Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.
The Treasury in the statement said it imposed sanctions on 22 people and 104 entities with touchpoints in over 20 countries in jurisdictions, while the State Department targeted almost 200 people, entities, vessels and aircraft.
U.S. sanctions authorities were also expanded to more sectors of the Russian economy, including architecture, manufacturing and construction, the Treasury said, allowing any person or entity operating in those sectors to be hit with sanctions.
The Biden administration also halted the export of wide range of consumer goods to Russia on Friday and added 71 companies to the Commerce Department's "Entity List," which bars suppliers from selling them U.S. technology without a hard-to-obtain license.
The U.S. and Europe imposed financial penalties on Russia immediately following the start of the war and have steadily ratcheted up the pressure since then, targeting Russia's Putin and officials close to him, the financial sector and oligarchs.
Experts say Washington could still impose tougher penalties, however - while the sanctions have clearly damaged Russia's economy, they have not stopped Putin from pursuing a war that has killed thousands and turned cities to rubble.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, Simon Lewis, Jonathan Landay, Susan Heavey and Doina Chiacu in Washington)
