US President Joe Biden promised “strong” economic penalties on Thursday to make President Vladimir Putin a “pariah” for invading Ukraine, but said there was a lack of Western consensus to adopt a harsher step.
In an address from the White House, Biden warned four additional banks, including the two largest, Sberbank and VTB, will face Western sanctions. Furthermore, export restrictions on critical components will “shut off more than half of Russia’s high-tech imports.”
“This is going to have a significant impact on the Russian economy, both immediately and in the long run,” Biden warned.
These actions, together with a slew of additional penalties imposed this week, would render Putin a “pariah on the world stage,” according to Biden.
“Any country that supports Russia’s blatant aggression against Ukraine will be tarnished by association,” he added.
For the time being, Biden reaffirmed that there will be no direct penalties against Putin, who is generally known to have acquired a vast, secret fortune over his two decades in office.
He also stated that a much-discussed proposal to remove Russia from the SWIFT international payments system, thus crippling the country’s banking industry, would not take place.
On Thursday, Ukraine appealed for Russia to be removed from SWIFT, but Biden said the Western alliance was unable to reach an accord.
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