Ambassador Markarova states goal to have Russia’s entire banking system sanctioned

This was stated by Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, in an exclusive comment to Ukrinform.

"The latest package of sanctions is important because it was imposed against the largest Russian bank, which had not previously been subject to restrictions from the U.S., as well as against its six foreign subsidiaries and 54 smaller Russian banks," the ambassador noted.

After all, Gazprombank is the largest bank through which Russia receives payments for gas and energy in general.

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According to her, the step significantly limits the Kremlin’s ability to conduct international banking transactions. In addition, it narrows the circle of those who are willing to coerate, and therefore continue to fuel the Russian war machine, due to the threat of secondary sanctions.

“Russian banks enable criminal authorities in the Kremlin to make financial transactions within the country, as well as in temporarily occupied territories. They allow Russia to sell its raw materials and buy – including bypassing other sanctions – plenty of products and spare parts, and thus fund the war,” the diplomat noted.

In addition, according to the ambassador, banks as such are a source of financing payment gaps. That is, banks are the “blood supply system” of any economy.

Read also: U.S. slaps sanctions on Russia's Gazprombank, other financial institutions

“To prevail, Ukraine needs more weapons on the battlefield, as well as more sanctions against Russia, which will reduce its income and make it impossible to restore its capabilities. Among the large number of restrictions in various sectors that we are working on, are sanctions on the financial and energy sectors that have the greatest impact on Russia,” Markarova emphasized.

According to her, since the very start, the Ukrainian side has been coerating with American partners to expand restrictions against key Russian banking facilities.

 “Our goal is to introduce comprehensive sectoral sanctions against the entire Russian banking system,” the diplomat emphasized.

At the same time, according to the ambassador, there is a significant untapped potential for economic and financial pressure on Russia.

 “As of now, sanctions have been imposed against 118 Russian banks, while there’s a total of 317 banks erating in Russia, as per their Central Bank. Accordingly, we thank the U.S. for this powerful decision and continue to work toward introducing restrictions against 199 other, so far unsanctioned banks,” Markarova noted.

In addition, there are other priorities in the area, the ambassador noted. Among them are the continued pressure on the oil price cap and the sanctions against Russia’s shadow fleet of tankers, which today in fact fully ensures continued oil trade for the Russians. The restrictions should also apply to buyers of these products.

“It would be best if we completely ousted bloody Russian oil and gas from global markets,” the ambassador noted in this regard.

Another focus is sanctions against the Russian military industrial complex with the main emphasis on blocking the supply of Western components to Russia. The Russian nuclear sector should also be subject to major restrictions, including sanctions against Rosatom and its network. Special attention should be paid to preventing the supply of high-tech equipment to Russia, including machines, aggregates, machine tos, etc.

“Therefore, there is still a lot of work to do, but the results achieved are also significant,” Oksana Markarova concluded.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, last week the U.S. Treasury announced a new package of sanctions against Russia as part of the G7 agreements, which include restrictions imposed on Gazprombank and dozens of other Russian financial institutions.