Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said, as officials look to sever President Vladimir Putin’s financial lifeline with the conflict heading into its second year.
Mr Adeyemo spoke to reporters ahead of a speech he’s set to give later Tuesday at the Council on Foreign Relations that will outline the US approach to squeezing Russia’s economy a year after it invaded Ukraine. The sanctions have had a devastating impact on Russia’s gas exports and imports of high-tech goods but have yet to seriously diminish Putin’s ability to wage war.
He said the US is in touch with banks and companies to warn them that they risk being cut off from the US and its financial partners’ financial systems.Mr Adeyemo’s sentiment underscored how much of a challenge the US has faced in trying to dissuade some of the world’s major economies, such as China, Brazil, Indonesia and India, fromdespite Western arguments that Russia violated Ukraine’s sovereignty and has committed war crimes there.