US unveils new Russia sanctions, implements ban on new imports of Russian gold

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CNN

(CNN)The United States government took a slew of actions against Russia on Tuesday, sanctioning those whom it says support Russia's defense industrial base, designating Russian military units for human rights abuses in Ukraine and implementing a ban on new imports of Russian gold. The moves are the latest in response to Russia's months-long war in Ukraine and were taken after G7 leaders in Germany agreed to steps, including the gold import ban, meant to weaken Moscow.

In a statement, the US Treasury Department announced sanctions on 70 entities, including State Corporation Rostec -- "a massive Russian state-owned enterprise formed to consolidate Russia's technological, aerospace, and military-industrial expertise" -- and its key holdings and affiliates, as well as 29 Russian individuals. The Treasury Department re-designated the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LNR) -- two pro-Russian separatist regions of Ukraine recognized as independent by Moscow -- and sanctioned Vitaliy Pavlovich Khotsenko, who is "the newly appointed chairperson of the so-called government of the DNR," and six individuals who "are or have been high level officials in the so-called DNR and LNR governments."

According to the Treasury statement, the US State Department is imposing sanctions on 45 entities and 29 individuals. "Included in the State Department's action is the designation of Russian Federation military units and the redesignation of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), which have been credibly implicated in human rights abuses or violations of international humanitarian law in Ukraine," the Treasury statement said.

The State Department will also move "to impose visa restrictions on officials believed to have threatened or violated Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity, or political independence, including on more than 500 Russian Federation military officers and on Russian Federation officials involved in suppressing dissent," it said. The West's withering set of sanctions on Russia has taken a dramatic toll -- on Monday, the country defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time since the Bolshevik revolution more than a century ago. The White House said the default showed the power of Western sanctions imposed on Russia since it invaded Ukraine.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/28/politics/new-us-sanctions-on-russia/index.html

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The G7 were planning the gold thing as reported earlier and the U.S. has added onto that from the U.S. perspective.

[ck4829]

1. It's time to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. The Russian military is a terrorist org

GRU is a terrorist organization.
The FSB is a terrorist organization.

[rockfordfile]

3. I agree

[DFW]

2. Not this again. If this relic from Reagan is brought back, I hope it is done more intelligently.

Reagan imposed this for the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. It ALMOST made sense, as the Soviet Union was still minting its Chevronetz gold coins, and had made up a gold coin set in 1980 to commemorate the Moscow Olympics. It had been sold worldwide in great quantity. But these were peanuts by comparison. Gold kilo bars, where the real gold money is, can be stamped with any symbol at all, and are easily melted down in any case.

It was a great publicity stunt for the Republicans, though. "See how tough we are?" Yeah, real tough. Gold is a TINY part of Russian exports. It is good for headlines, and not much else. There is one company in Dallas, for example, that imports old American gold coins (when they can locate them--these were last minted in 1932) from overseas. U.S. customs at the Dallas airport started harassing them to explain where the factory in Europe was that made these coins (i.e. IS IT THE SOVIET UNION?). They were told that there was no factory in Europe. These coins were made in Philadelphia, PA, San Francisco, CA, Carson City, NV, and Denver, CO. As in USA. All prior to 1933. But US Customs in Dallas persisted and kept demanding to know WHERE in Europe these 100 year old American coins were being made. Keep in mind that these people were the experts that the FBI and Customs itself relied upon when there was a question of authenticity.

Finally, I told them, I could probably solve the harassment problem. I was pretty sure, knowing Regan's mentality, that their phones were being listened to. So, I called them and remarked that I was pretty sure that the Russians had an agent inside the Dallas Customs office. They said, how do you figure? I said, look, these guys know that Philadelphia, San Francisco, Carson City and Denver are in the USA. You don't get to be an inspector for the US Customs service by being a complete idiot (irony quite intentional). Therefore, if US Customs keeps making a big deal of asking where in Europe a factory is located that makes 100 year old American gold coins, the only logical explanation for doing that is that their office doing it has been infiltrated by Russian agents who are purposely pursuing this laughable line of investigation, and are using it as a clever ruse to cover up REAL imports of embargoed Russian gold. The only reason to continue the harassment over the US gold coins was to provide a distraction for sneaking other objects into the USA while Customs was occupied with the non-issue of the American coins. NO Dallas Customs inspector could be THAT much of an idiot. It had to be the deliberate tactic of a planted Soviet agent. The harassment stopped the next day. Literally, the next day. Whoever at Customs was listening to the call brought the tape to some higher-up, who obviously chewed out the idiot, and told him to go do his job using half his brain, and not just a tenth of it.

I hope we don't end up making fools of ourselves by doing a repeat performance.