(Reuters) – The White House on Friday said the United States would impose sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as Washington looks to ramp up pressure on Moscow following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The rare but not unprecedented U.S. move to impose sanctions on a head of state would come just a day after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, assaulting by land, sea and air in the biggest attack by one state against another in Europe since World War Two.
White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said concerted actions to impose sanctions on Putin send an important signal, adding that the decision to target Putin, Lavrov and other officials was made after U.S. President Joe Biden had a phone call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“It has been under consideration and on the table for some time,” Psaki told reporters, adding that it represented Biden’s strong view to “take actions and steps in alignment with our European partners, and this is certainly evidence of that.”
Earlier on Friday, EU states and Britain agreed to freeze any European assets of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday, as Ukraine’s leader pleaded for faster and more forceful sanctions to punish Russia’s invasion of his country.
The imposition of sanctions against Putin and Lavrov reflect the West’s “absolute impotence” when it comes to foreign policy, RIA news agency cited a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman as saying on Friday.
The United States has in the past imposed sanctions on heads of state, including on Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.
Edward Fishman, an Atlantic Council fellow who worked on Russia sanctions at the State Department during the Obama administration, said that while the sanctions on Putin are largely symbolic, targeting the Russian leader was a reasonable step for the United States and its partners to take.
“It certainly sends a very strong message of solidarity with Ukrainians who are under fire right now,” Fishman said.
Putin urged Ukraine’s military to overthrow its political leaders and negotiate peace on Friday, as authorities in Kyiv called on citizens to help defend the capital from a Russian assault its mayor said had already begun.
The sanctions targeting Putin are the latest punitive action from Washington over Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on Russia’s two biggest banks, among others, and members of the elite.
It followed action on Wednesday that designated the company in charge of building Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, and Tuesday’s move, which also targeted Russian banks and elites.
Responding to reports that the U.S. government had ordered officials to stop most contacts with Russia, State Department spokesman Ned Price said the invasion of Ukraine had “fundamentally changed” Moscow’s relationship with Washington and other nations.
Price told reporters U.S. officials will continue to engage with their Russian counterparts on important national security issues, including the talks to return to a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Steve Holland, Daphne Psaledakis, Trevor Hunnicutt, Humeyra Pamuk, Simon Lewis and David Lawder in Washington and Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Sandra Maler)
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