President Joe Biden is reportedly preparing to sanction hundreds of Russian lawmakers, including most of Russia’s State Duma, its lower house of parliament, on Thursday, March 24, 2022, just as he jets off to Europe to meet with NATO leaders.
Biden will announce the new sanctions on 300 members of Russian parliament on Thursday, March 24, 2022, from Brussels, where he will meet with allies from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, to plot their next steps to address the war in Ukraine, officials told the Wall Street Journal.
The sanctions will be in coordination with the European Union and members of the G-7 alliance, they said. In total, 400 people will be targeted, including 328 Russian lawmakers and other elites, as the invasion trudges into its fourth week.
The Russian Federal Assembly is made up of a 450-member Duma and a 170-seat upper chamber, the Federation Council. The Duma approved a law this month that would authorize up to 15 years in prison for peddling ‘false news’ about Ukraine.
Also last month the Duma passed a direct appeal to Vladimir Putin to recognize the Russian-controlled separatist states of Donetsk and Luhansk, where Putin first sent in ‘peace-keeping’ troops at the start of the war.
The White House sanctioned Putin directly last month and has so far targeted a slew of political figures and elites that have propped up his regime and cut off Putin’s access to banks and business to starve his war chest.
And though the Russian currency, the ruble, dropped down to being worth next to nothing and the nation was last week at risk of defaulting on its debt, sanctions have done little to change the Russian leader’s posture.
This week, the ruble stabilized and Russia was able to make interest payments on $117 million due on two bonds denominated in U.S. dollars. And while about half of Russia’s $640 billion in foreign reserves is frozen, it has been able to offset that by continued fuel sales to Europe amid a price spike in the cost of oil and gas.
Earlier National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that Biden would unveil the next round of sanctions on Russia and security aid for Ukraine during his trip.
Sullivan said the president would make new announcements about how to help European countries wean themselves off of Russian energy, which has already been banned in the U.S. Russia’s oil and gas accounts for about a third of European energy supplies.
‘From Brussels, President Biden will travel to Poland where he will engage with US troops, who are now helping to defend NATO territory, and he will meet with experts involved in the humanitarian response,’ said Sullivan.
‘He will also hold a bilateral meeting with President Duda of Poland.’
Poland has received an influx of more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees.
Duda has already asked for more help in coping with the humanitarian emergency and for military reinforcement.
‘We feel that it is the right place for him to go to be able to see troops, to be able to see humanitarian experts, and to be able to meet with a frontline and very vulnerable ally,’ said Sullivan.
Polish leaders have also floated the prospect of a Western peacekeeping mission intervening in Ukraine, an idea that Washington rejects for fear it would escalate the conflict.
Biden’s visit comes as the Russian invasion remains stalled – nearly a month into the war, Russian troops have failed to seize a single major city and their advance has been halted on nearly all fronts by staunch Ukrainian defense.
Now, Ukrainian forces are preparing to retake captured territory as Russian forces battle declining morale – according to the latest Pentagon assessments.
A senior U.S. defense official also said Russian morale was falling.
‘We picked up some indications that some of their soldiers are suffering from frostbite because they lacked the appropriate cold-weather gear for the environment that they’re in … that they haven’t – in addition to food and fuel – even in terms of personal equipment for some of their troops they are having trouble,’ said the official.
‘They’re having trouble and we picked up indications that some troops have actually suffered and been taken out of the fight because of frostbite.
‘So yes, they are having continued logistics and sustainment issues.’
Source: Daily Mail
