Just as they promised (and acting unilaterally as Europe declined to go along with The White House), President Obama has unleashed a set of ‘sectoral’ sanctions to wreak havoc in Russia. The sanctions include the standard travel bans but adds rules that block several of Russia’s largest firms from American debt markets. The plan – to restrict funding availability for Russian firms to under 90-days – is however, dead-on-arrival. As we explained here,Russian companies, facing $115 billion of debt due over the next 12 months, will have the funds even if bond markets shut as “the amount of cash on balance sheets of Russian companies, committed credit lines from banks and the operating cash flows they will get is sufficient for the companies to comfortably service their liabilities.” This will do nothing but raise Putin’s ire even more.
- U.S. OFFICIAL SAYS RUSSIA FAILING TO DE-ESCALATE IN UKRAINE
President Obama escalated sanctions against Russia on Wednesday by targeting a series of large banks and energy and defense firms in what officials described as the most punishing measures to date for Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine.
While the latest moves do not cut off entire sectors of the Russian economy, as threatened in the past, the administration’s actions go significantly further than the financial and travel limits imposed so far on several dozen individuals and their businesses. The new measures will severely restrict access to American debt markets for the targeted companies.
The moves were coordinated with European leaders, who were meeting in Brussels on Wednesday to consider their own package of penalties against Russia. The Europeans declined to go as far as the United States, instead focusing on a plan to block loans for new projects in Russia by European investment and development banks.
The disparate approaches reflect the deeper divisions between Washington and Brussels over how tough to be with Russia.
Here is the full list of sanctioned entities:
