London and Washington are the first countries to ratify a new round of sanctions against Moscow within the framework of the G7 summit.
From Hiroshima, Japan, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that his government “bans all imports of Russian diamonds, copper, aluminum and nickel.”
In particular, the embargo on Russian diamonds may be largely symbolic, unless it is carried out in conjunction with other countries, as Britain previously imposed a punitive 35% tariff on the aggressor country’s diamonds and metals.
But Russia’s billion-dollar diamond industry is expected to be addressed by the seven powers during the three-day meeting, European Council President Charles Michel said.
This Russian commodity is worth between $4,000 and $5,000 million per year, making it a fundamental source of income for the Kremlin through taxes on the territory.
The British government detailed that its economic measures would target 86 more people and companies that, according to the Sunak administration, were involved in “Russia’s energy, metals, defence, transport and finance sectors” as well as the “military-industrial complex”. Linked with that. of President Vladimir Putin.
“This is a new wave of sanctions targeting companies and individuals linked to Russia’s ability to finance and wage war,” the British government said in a statement.
US targets 70 entities in Russia and other countries
A senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity and was quoted by the AP agency, said Washington was implementing a new package of sanctions to attack the Kremlin’s sources of income.
“All G7 members are preparing to implement new sanctions and export controls (…) but the United States will launch a major package of its own,” he said.
Washington’s measures include cutting US exports to about 70 Russian and other companies involved in Russian defense production and announcing 300 sanctions against individuals, entities, ships and aircraft.
FILE- Tanker Sun Arrow loads its cargo of liquefied natural gas from the Sakhalin-2 project at the port of Prigorodnoye, Russia October 29, 2021. Life for ordinary Russians doesn’t look so different than it did before the invasion of Ukraine. © AP
The official said other G7 nations – France, Canada, Japan, Italy and Germany – would take similar steps to isolate Russia and reduce its ability to wage war in Ukraine. Details will be revealed during the summit.
“These will go towards the financial clout as well as the future energy and extraction capabilities of Russia and other actors helping to support the war,” he said.
So far, the US has frozen funds from the Russian Central Bank, restricted banks’ access to the SWIFT system, a key to global financial transactions, and frozen thousands of Russian companies, government officials, billionaires from Putin and their families. Has been approved.
But Putin is still paying for the invasion against his neighbor, the biggest conflict on European soil since World War II, due to efforts by the West to stifle his financing methods.
In recent months, US Treasury Department officials have traveled across Europe and Central Asia to pressure countries that still trade with the Kremlin to cut their economic ties.
FILE-Russian President Vladimir Putin standing next to Russian billionaire Alicher Usmanov, one of the few people to appear simultaneously on US, UK and EU sanctions lists. © AP / Mikhail Klimentyev
It is one of the issues that has occupied most of the attention of the summit in Hiroshima. In a joint statement at the start of the meeting, the G7 nations said they are “working to impose more sanctions and measures to increase costs to Russia and those that support its war effort (… ) are our efforts to ensure that Russia can no longer turn the availability of energy into a weapon against us and the world,” he stressed.
The collective imposition of a $60-a-barrel price cap on Russian oil and diesel is among the measures taken last year by the grouping of the world’s seven largest economies.
In addition, the leaders assured that they are “renewing” their commitment to provide “the financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support that Ukraine needs for as long as it is needed.”
Japan promotes talks around denuclearization
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats against Ukraine, North Korea’s months-long barrage of missile tests and China’s rapidly growing nuclear arsenal resonate with Japan’s push to make nuclear disarmament a key part of this meeting in Hiroshima Happened.
In fact, world leaders visited that city’s Peace Memorial Park this Friday, which is dedicated to the thousands who died in the first detonation of an atomic bomb in wartime on August 6, 1945, when a plane B-29 US had dropped a nuke. Bomb on Hiroshima. An estimated 140,000 people were killed in this attack.
On the eve of the summit, Kishida told Biden, the Japan-US alliance “is the foundation of peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region.”
Japan, facing threats from China, Russia and North Korea, is expanding its military but also relies on the 50,000 US troops stationed in Japan and Washington’s military might.
It is still uncertain whether the meeting will result in commitments regarding nuclear disarmament publicized by Tokyo, but in recent weeks the matter has raised the fury of Pyongyang, which has criticized the group’s “disarmament” after repeated nuclear tests. Branded the call for nuclear disarmament by “intervention”.
