United States Imposes New Sanctions on Russia’s Gazprombank

The United States imposed new sanctions on Russia’s Gazprombank on Thursday, deploying its most powerful sanctions tool against the bank as President Joe Biden steps up his efforts to punish Moscow for its war with Ukraine before he leaves office in January 2025.

The U.S. Treasury said the government had decided to freeze the Russian bank’s U.S. assets and ban it from doing business with Americans, effectively cutting Gazprombank out of the U.S. banking system.

Gazprom is one of Russia’s largest banks and is partly owned by Gazprom. Since the war began in February 2022, Ukraine has been calling for more sanctions on the bank, which receives payments for natural gas from Gazprom’s customers in Europe.

The new sanctions come days after the Biden administration allowed Kiev to use U.S. ATACMS missiles to strike Russian territory. Ukraine fired the weapons, the longest-range missiles Washington has supplied for such attacks on Russia, on Tuesday, on the 1,000th day of the war.

The Treasury Department also imposed sanctions on 50 small and medium-sized Russian banks to restrict Russia’s access to the international financial system and prevent it from misusing it to pay for technology and equipment needed for war.

The US department warned that foreign financial institutions that maintain relationships with the targeted banks could face significant penalties.

“This comprehensive action will make it harder for the Kremlin to evade US sanctions and finance and equip its military,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.

“We will continue to take decisive action against any financial channels Russia uses to support its unlawful and unjustified war in Ukraine,” Yellen added.

In addition to the sanctions, the Treasury Department also issued two new general licenses allowing US entities to terminate transactions involving Gazprombank, among other financial institutions, and take steps to divest from debt or equity held by the Russian bank.

The sanctions were imposed under an executive order by Biden, and it remains unclear whether President-elect Donald Trump could lift them if he decides to take a different approach to Russia.