End of day summary
It’s been a lively day in Washington. Here’s where things stand.
- Joe Biden is headed to Camp David after a busy day that began at the White House, where he announced that the US would move to revoke Russia’s “most favored nation” trading status, in coordination with allies. Ending normal trade relations will “make it harder for Russia to business with the United States”. The US also banned the import of Russian seafood, alcohol and diamonds.
- In Philadelphia, Biden told House Democrats that this November’s mid-term elections are the “most important in modern history”, and urged them to make the economic case to voters in plain, simple language. He then visited an elementary school to mark the one-year anniversary of the American Rescue Plan.
- The president also warned that Russia would “pay a severe price” if it used chemical weapons against Ukraine. The White House declined to elaborate on what such a response might look like.
- The US Treasury Department has unveiled new sanctions targeting “Kremlin elites, oligarchs, and Russia’s political and national security leaders” as part of its coordinated effort to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
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Vice president Kamala Harris, speaking in Romania at the end of her high-profile trip there and to Poland, both fellow Nato members, said the military alliance is “ironclad” in its commitment to defend its territory.
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The US Treasury Department announced a new round of sanctions targeting “Kremlin elites, oligarchs, and Russia’s political and national security leaders.”
The new sanctions target the wife and adult children of Putin’s spokesman, Dmitriy Sergeevich Peskov; Russian tycoon and “Kremlin insider” Viktor Vekselberg; and 10 members of the management board of Russia’s second largest bank, VTB Bank. The list also includes 12 members of the Russian state Duma, including Vyacheslav Victorovich Volodin, who is also a permanent member of Russia’s Security Council.
“Treasury continues to hold Russian officials to account for enabling Putin’s unjustified and unprovoked war,” Treasury secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. “Today’s actions also further isolates the severely damaged Russian economy by prohibiting trade in products that are key to the economic and financial interests of all Russian elites.”
