Biden announces a new arsenal of sanctions and accuses Putin of wanting to “restore the Soviet Union”

Joe Biden assured this Thursday that Russia will pay for an invasion of Ukraine that the United States had been anticipating for months and that, despite this and the 1,000 threats of sanctions, Vladimir Putin has ended up perpetrating this Thursday.

“Putin is the aggressor.

Putin has decided to start this war.

Now he and his country will pay the consequences”, stressed the American leader.

In coordination with the allies, he announced a new wave of sanctions, which include limitations on the import of technological products, the blocking of the financing of public companies and large banking groups, punishments of individuals from the Russian oligarchy and new restrictions on sovereign debt. from the country.

Biden promised to turn the Russian leader into an "international pariah."

The president appeared before the media at the White House shortly after meeting with the G-7 leaders, after a fateful night of bloodshed, in which Putin had announced the war on Ukraine under the euphemism of a "special military action". ”.

That he did it in the middle of a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, which, to make matters worse, is now chaired by Russia, gives a measure of the challenge and the message that he was willing to send to the West.

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“Putin wants to restore the former Soviet Union.

And that ambition is completely contrary to where the world is today,” Biden said.

“This was never a sincere security concern, this has been an outright assault.

Putin has a sinister view of the world,” she added.

The arsenal of sanctions, although deep, however excludes some more transcendental actions that were on the table, such as penalties against Putin himself or the disconnection of the SWIFT international payment system, which would have had global implications.

Nor does it hit the strategic energy sector.

The president of the United States explained that the measures seek to "cause the maximum damage to Russia and the minimum in the United States and in allied countries."

He admitted, however, that the package of sanctions could have consequences in the gas and oil market —Russia is one of the world's major suppliers— and addressed the American citizens, who go to the polls in November for the legislative elections , with this message: “This aggression cannot go unanswered.

If we leave it unanswered, the consequences will be worse.”

To try to counteract the blow, he advanced that the US will release more crude oil reserves.

It has been an old acquaintance who has put the US president before the biggest foreign conflict since he came to the White House, the one that has caused the most serious crisis with Russia since the end of the Cold War.

Biden lived in the front line, as Barack Obama's vice president, both the Europeanist Maidan revolution (2014) and Putin's furious reaction, which led to the illegal annexation of Crimea and support for the separatist regions of eastern Ukraine.

This time, unlike then, the unity of the United States and the allies is more solid, beyond differences in tones or styles;

and this time, Washington has exposed to the world in advance each one of the steps that he believed the Kremlin planned to take, based on sharing the alerts coming from his intelligence information, in order to cut off the capacity for surprise of the.

Washington anticipated that the more than 100,000 soldiers stationed on the borders with Ukraine would increase exponentially to prepare for the invasion, warned that Moscow would fabricate pretexts to justify the invasion — Russia has alleged escalating violence in the separatist regions that Ukraine and its allies deny.

Biden said last Friday that he believed that Putin had already made the decision to attack and that it would happen in a few days.

Washington also warned the United Nations that the head of the Kremlin already had a list of individuals to retaliate against.

And Putin himself warned against members of the Ukrainian government in his Monday speech.

The Russian president has had no complexes in complying step by step with what the US has been advancing.

Neither that nor the arsenal of sanctions promised by the allies have served to deter him.

Biden accused Putin of carrying out an "unjustified and unprovoked attack" against the Ukrainian people and has warned of the "catastrophic" consequences it will have.

He also warned that Putin "wants to test the West, to see if we are in this together."

He also announced the dispatch of new troops to Germany, from where the US Army oversees its operations in Eastern Europe.

The UN Security Council meeting reached dramatic moments Wednesday night in New York.

The Russian ambassador, as monthly president of the Council, gave the floor to his Ukrainian counterpart, Sergiy Kyslytsya.

The latter, in a tone as defiant as it was serene, pushed aside the pages that he had prepared —“They are no longer useful,” he said—, read an article from the UN Charter and urged the Russian ambassador to make a statement after blurting out: “No there is purgatory for war criminals.

They are going straight to hell, ambassador.”

"Russia has declared war on Ukraine," said the Ukrainian representative.

“It is not a war, it is a special military action,” replied the Russian, reports

Guterres' mistake

The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, accepted his misperception.

"I was convinced that nothing serious would happen, I was wrong," he said, urging Putin to restrain himself.

“I have only one thing to say from the bottom of my heart: President Putin, do not allow his troops to attack Ukraine.

Give peace a chance, too many people have already died”, he pleaded to no avail.

With the sanctions announced until this Wednesday, the US had hit two large public financial institutions, five members of the elites close to Putin, the public debt financing channels and the consortium responsible for the new Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which was built to transport gas between Russia and Germany through the Baltic, but whose entry into operation has been put on hold due to the conflict.

The question is how all this artillery will affect Russia, if the Kremlin has already made the calculations and is willing to put up with the pull.

The Russian stock market collapsed this Thursday, the ruble hit a historic low.

Everything could be taken for granted, but the bulk of the sanctions will take time to take effect, China represents an important alternative source of resources to the West and the bites of the Russian Army are going very fast.

The US and NATO allies have stressed from the start that they will not deploy troops inside Ukraine, as the country is not part of the defense alliance.

A future entry of this former Soviet republic into NATO is, in fact, one of the elements that has triggered Putin's aggression, who demands guarantees that such incorporation will never take place.

The allies have indeed contributed weapons and financial aid.

That support, however, does not seem sufficient to resist military pressure from the Kremlin.

A Pentagon source quoted by

said Thursday that, according to his information, Moscow is seeking to "behead the government and install a president related to its interests."

Biden also wanted to send a message of hope.

"Make no mistake, freedom will triumph," he insisted at the end of his statement.

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