G-7 to announce Russia sanctions; Zelenskyy expected to fly to Japan

Leaders of the Group of Seven are expected to introduce on a set of measures so as to add pressure on Russia as its invasion of Ukraine continues for a second yr.

G-7 leaders are in Hiroshima, Japan, for a three-day meeting to debate international trade and security because the U.S. and China battle for influence in a multipolar world amid concerns of their decoupling, and because the Ukraine war continues.

A senior U.S. administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said early Friday morning that the federal government plans to introduce steps to “economically isolate” Russia to weaken its ability to wage war.

“We are going to proceed to expand export controls to make it even harder for Russia to sustain its war machine,” the senior official told reporters, emphasizing that the U.S. government’s “commitment to proceed tightening the screws on Russia stays as strong because it was last yr.”

Discussions on the scope of the sanctions on Russia shall be underway as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is reportedly expected to fly to Japan to attend the G-7 summit on Sunday, in keeping with the Financial Times.

The U.S. official added that each one G-7 members are preparing to implement a fresh batch of export controls. That may include adding 70 entities to the U.S. commerce blacklist and greater than 300 recent sanctions against individuals, entities, vessels and aircraft.

“These will go after financial facilitators, in addition to future energy and extractive capabilities of Russia and other actors helping to support the war,” said the official, adding the sanctions will span Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Those developments come as the UK individually imposed more sanctions on Russia under a laws to be introduced later within the yr.

“The U.K. is today announcing a ban on Russian diamonds, an industry price $4 billion in exports in 2021, in addition to imports of Russian-origin copper, aluminium and nickel,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office said in a Friday release.

“As today’s sanctions announcements exhibit, the G7 stays unified within the face of the threat from Russia and steadfast in our support for Ukraine,” Sunak said.

Nonetheless, the extra efforts to squeeze Russia’s economy are unlikely to make a major impact, in keeping with George Washington University research professor of international affairs, Robert Orttung.

“The brand new restrictive sanctions on Russia could have minimal impact on world trade. None of those measures are prone to get Russia to stop its war on Ukraine since Putin is fully committed to that and the sanctions should not harming Russia’s ability to operate on a day-to-day basis,” he said in an email.

“Since China and India should not participating within the sanctions, Russia still has loads of trading partners,” he added.

Orttung noted that the measures to heighten economic pressure on Russia could be symbolically vital when combined with extensive military aid to Ukraine.

“Probably the most helpful end result for world trade shall be an end to the war that blocks Russia from further aggression,” he said.

“Every little thing that the West can do to extend Ukrainian fighting capability and weaken Russia moves us closer to this goal.”