President Biden announced new sanctions on Russian banks in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, but declined to make good on his threat to sanction Vladimir Putin directly or to cut Russia off from the international banking system entirely.
“We’ve now sanctioned Russian banks that together hold around $1 trillion in assets,” Biden told reporters at the White House. Biden noted that the U.S. had already cut off Russia’s largest bank from the U.S. financial system.
“And today, we’re also blocking four more major banks. That means every asset they have in America will be frozen,” Biden said.
Among the newly-sanctioned banks is VTB, Russia’s second-largest bank with $250 billion in assets.
However, the U.S. did not cut Russian access to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT system. Managed by the National Bank of Belgium, a large share of international business transactions are conducted via the SWIFT system.
“The sanctions that we’ve proposed on all their banks are of equal consequence, maybe more consequence, than SWIFT, number one. Number two, it is always an option, but right now, that’s not the position that the rest of Europe wishes to take,” Biden said when asked why SWIFT sanctions weren’t included in the new package.
Ukraine has called to disconnect Russia from SWIFT in response to the invasion.
“We demand the disconnection of Russia from SWIFT, the introduction of a no-fly zone over Ukraine and other effective steps to stop the aggressor,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Twitter post.
A package of additional tough sanctions against Russia from the EU is approaching. Discussed all the details with @EmmanuelMacron. We demand the disconnection of Russia from SWIFT, the introduction of a no-fly zone over Ukraine and other effective steps to stop the aggressor.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 24, 2022
When ABC News reporter Celia Vega pointed out that “sanctions were clearly not enough to deter” Putin from launching an invasion, Biden said economic sanctions were never intended to do so.
“No one expected the sanctions to prevent anything from happening. This is going to take time,” Biden said. “It’s not going to occur, he’s going to say, oh, my God. These sanctions are coming. I’m going to stand down.”
The comments contrasted with Vice President Kamala Harris’s statements on Sunday, when she said sanctions were designed to deter Russia from invading Ukraine.
“The purpose of the sanctions has always been and continues to be deterrence,” Harris told reporters in Munich. “These are some of the greatest sanctions, if not the strongest, that we’ve ever issued.”
White House Deputy National Security Adviser Daleep Singh made similar comments on Tuesday.
“Sanctions are not an end in themselves,” Singh said. “They’re meant to prevent and deter a large-scale invasion of Ukraine that involves the seizure of major cities, including Kyiv.”
Russian forces have invaded Ukraine from the east, south, and from Belarus to the north. Russia has captured the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.