Alisa Adamska

Author

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the world has shown its opposition by imposing a large number of sanctions on the Russian Federation. While these restrictions are aimed primarily at the Russian government, it is Russian oligarchs who are most affected by them.

Given the financial nature of the sanctions, the Russian elite has been trying to evade said restrictions by using different loopholes like cryptocurrency and shell companies. In order to prevent them from doing this, the U.S. government has introduced new policies regarding this matter.

On March 11th, The White House has published a Joint Statement by the G7 announcing further economic costs on Russia. Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo in his interview with CNBC also highlighted that the U.S. will hold accountable any actor that seeks to help Russia bypass economic sanctions amid the Kremlin’s unprovoked onslaught on Ukraine.

“What we want to make very clear to crypto exchanges, to financial institutions, to individuals, to anyone who may be in a position to help Russia take advantage and evade our sanctions: We will hold you accountable, we will come and we will find you.”

In the G7 statement further objectives were named:

1. The important benefits of Russia’s membership of the World Trade Organization will be revoked and it will ensure that the products of Russian companies no longer receive Most-Favoured-Nation treatment in the G7 (i.e. the U.S., Japan, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy and Canada) economies.
2. The countries are working collectively to prevent Russia from obtaining financing from the leading multilateral financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
3. They commit to continuing their campaign of pressure against Russian elites, proxies and oligarchs close to President Putin and other architects of the war as well as their families and their enablers. For that purpose, they have operationalized the task force, which will target the assets of Russian elites close to President Putin and the architects of his war.
4. They commit to maintaining the effectiveness of their restrictive measures, to cracking down on evasion and to closing loopholes. In addition to their previous actions, they will also ensure that the Russian state and elites, proxies and oligarchs cannot leverage digital assets as a means of evading or offsetting the impact of international sanctions.
5. The G7 are resolved to fight off the Russian regime’s attempts to spread disinformation.
6. The G7 claim to be ready to impose further restrictions on exports and imports of key goods and technologies on the Russian Federation.
7. Russian entities directly or indirectly supporting the war should not have access to new debt and equity investments and other forms of international capital.

Along with these restrictions, more and more companies almost every day impose new sanctions on the Russian Federation, its government and its citizens. Per our previous research, it was estimated that more than 2,700 sanctions in total were introduced.

Based on materials from CNBC and The White House

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