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Sullivan said he expects the White House to announce specific targets that are trying to facilitate Russia’s sanction evasion in a week
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Thursday said the Biden administration is focused on guaranteeing that Russia cannot evade global sanctions for its war in Ukraine.
While speaking at the Economic Club in Washington DC, Sullivan said the US government is now focusing on enforcing the sanctions already imposed on Russia, its officials, and oligarchs.
“I mean, what we have done is unprecedented in terms of a major economy to take this set of steps across financial sanctions, investment bans, the export controls,” Sullivan replied when asked whether the US has exhausted the sanctions it can impose against Moscow.
“But where our focus will be in the course of the coming days is on evasion,” he added.
“As Russia tries to adjust to the fact that it’s under this massive economic pressure, what steps can they try to evade our sanctions, and how do we crack down on that?”
Sullivan also added that he expects the White House to announce specific targets that are trying to facilitate Russia’s sanction evasion “in the next week or two.”
Since Russia invaded its ex-Soviet neighbor, Washington and its allies have imposed several rounds of coordinated sanctions, making Russia the world’s most-sanctioned country, passing Iran and North Korea.
Sullivan reiterated that the US has serious concerns about China’s arrangement with Russia.
He said that the Biden administration has not yet observed Beijing providing military assistance to Moscow, however, there are possibilities that the world’s second-largest economy may attempt to help Moscow in dampening the effects of sanctions.
“It’s something that we constantly monitor, and of course, we don’t have complete visibility all the time,” Sullivan said.
“Russia and China have an economic relationship, and there is continuing economic intercourse between Russia and China. But have we seen a systematic effort to undermine, weaken or defend sanctions at this point? We have not.”
Picture Credit: Foreign Policy
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