The U.S. sanctions imposed in April against several Russian banks, technology companies, individuals, and part of its sovereign debt were another step in the ongoing effort by Washington and its European allies to punish the Kremlin for reckless and aggressive acts against Russia’s neighbors and the West. Similar stringent measures are gaining traction in Europe. Last week, by an overwhelming vote of 569 to 67, the European Parliament resolved that in the event of renewed Russian aggression against Ukraine, “Russia should be excluded from the SWIFT payment system, and all assets in the EU of oligarchs close to the Russian authorities and their families in the EU need to be frozen and their visas cancelled.”
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Daniel Fried, Adrian Karatnycky: A new sanctions strategy to contain Putin’s Russia
Activists from Amnesty International demonstrate outside the Russian embassy in Berlin, on April 24, 2021, calling for the release of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
