The United States could sanction more banks linked to Russia and step up enforcement against dodging existing rules, a senior US official told Reuters, as Western powers reinvigorate efforts to isolate Moscow. want to do
The comments come as Western diplomats are seeking to agree new sanctions for February 24, the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We have frozen about 80% of the assets in the Russian banking sector,” James O’Brien, head of the US State Department’s Sanctions Coordination Office, told Reuters.
“We are looking at additional banks and financial institutions to see how Russia deals with the outside world. It is quite possible that there will be more action.”
The West blocked several Russian banks’ access to the international SWIFT payment system shortly after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February last year, with Sberbank and VTB forced to shut operations in much of Europe .
Western governments also froze about $300 billion in reserves of the Russian central bank.
But not all ties have been cut. Some European banks, including UniCredit and Raiffeisen Bank International, have large businesses there and must comply with local regulations to grant paid leave to servicemen.
And Gazprombank, the financial arm of Russian gas exporter Gazprom, has partly escaped harsher sanctions because it handles payments for energy.
Officials from EU countries told Reuters it was unclear how ambitious the new restrictions would be, given a desire in some European countries including Hungary and, to a lesser extent, Germany, for more curbs to ease the economic impact.
The United States and the European Union have sought to present a united front on sanctions, although their penalties differ, as Europe has close economic ties to Russia.
Ukraine has called for more sanctions, including those targeting Russia’s nuclear sector, but is likely to be rebuffed.
Two European officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said additional financial sanctions were possible but efforts to target Russia’s nuclear sector, which Poland also advocates, were unlikely to succeed.
Hungary has already said it would veto such a move.
One of the people said any attempt to target Gazprombank would be met with resistance in Europe because of its importance in processing payments for Russian gas still used by Hungary and other EU states.