Zachary Basu
AxiosSun, 08 May 2022 12:00 UTC
© Contributor/Getty ImagesRussian President Vladimir Putin.
The U.S., G7 and European Union agreed to impose sweeping new sanctions on Russia ahead of its symbolic
Victory Day holiday on May 9, including additional export controls and a commitment to phase out Russian oil.
Why it matters: Western officials fear President Vladimir Putin will use Monday's celebration of the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany to dramatically escalate his war against Ukraine.
Driving the news: Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelensky joined a G7 leaders' call on Sunday to discuss the sanctions and commemorate the sacrifices the Allies made to "defeat fascism" during World War II, a senior U.S. official told reporters.
- The leaders met virtually "to say, together, Putin is dishonoring those sacrifices by spreading his lies and disinformation about the barbarism he is committing in Ukraine," the official said.
- U.S. diplomats returned to Kyiv on Sunday to commemorate Victory in Europe Day with their Ukrainian counterparts. First lady Jill Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also made surprise trips to Ukraine.
What they're saying: "We remain united in our resolve that President Putin must not win his war against Ukraine," the G7 leaders said in a lengthy
joint statement commemorating V-E Day and detailing the new sanctions.
- "We owe it to the memory of all those who fought for freedom in the Second World War, to continue fighting for it today, for the people of Ukraine, Europe and the global community."
Details:
The U.S. announced it would join the U.K. in banning its citizens from providing "accounting, trust and corporate formation, and management consulting services to any person in the Russian Federation."
- The new American and British services restrictions will "work in tandem" with additional G7 export controls on "wood products, industrial engines, boilers, motors, fans, and ventilation equipment, bulldozers, and many other items with industrial and commercial applications," the White House said.
- The U.S. and U.K. decided not to ban the provision of legal services to Russians "for now," but will continue to assess whether to expand the sanctions based on Russia's behavior, the official said.
In addition,
the U.S. is sanctioning three of Russia's "most highly-viewed directly or indirectly state-controlled"
television stations — Channel One, Russia-1 and NTV.
- The sanctions will bar American advertisers from "funding Russian propaganda" and force the networks to domestically source video cameras, microphones, software servers and other broadcast technologies.
- The U.S. will also impose 2,600 additional visa restrictions on Russian and Belarusian officials, including eight executives from Sberbank and 27 executives from Gazprombank.
Between the lines
: "We picked goods, we picked services, we picked technologies that we and the Europeans and the G7 and our partners in Asia were the dominant suppliers of," the official said.
- The services bans are especially "powerful" because U.S. consulting and accounting firms have been asked by Russian companies "to help them figure out how to reformulate their business strategies" and "hide their wealth" to blunt sanctions, the official added.
- "We're shutting that down."
The official added that "these sanctions are not an end in themselves; they're intended to change the strategic calculus of the target."
- "Putin, like any autocrat, has a social contract. He's taken away the freedom of the people of Russia in exchange for stability. And he's no longer delivering upon that."
Comment: Putin enjoys an even greater approval rating than before the special operation because citizens are becoming increasingly aware of the threat Ukraine poses and the brazen attacks and duplicity the West is engaged in:
RT provides more
details on the G7 summit:
G7 vows to 'not let Russia win'
The Group of Seven (G7), which comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and US, issued a joint statement blasting Russia's ongoing military action in Ukraine on Sunday. Moscow was expelled from the collective, then known as the G8, in 2014.
The seven nations vowed to never let Moscow win the "war against Ukraine" and pledged further military and economic support for Kiev.
"We remain united in our resolve that President Putin must not win his war against Ukraine," the joint statement reads.
The document, issued on May 8 - the day most Western nations celebrate the end of WWII in Europe and victory over Nazism - said the G7 nations owe support for Ukraine in "the memory of all those who fought for freedom in the Second World War."
© AFP / Thibault CamusA video screen showing the G7 leaders during a summit on May 8, 2022
The seven world leaders who took part in Sunday's summit, along with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, vowed to provide further financial aid to Ukraine to support both its immediate needs and "long-term recovery and reconstruction."
The statement says that $24 billion has already been provided and pledged to Ukraine by the international community, while praising the assistance programs launched by the World Bank and the IMF.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pledged an additional $50 million in military assistance for Ukraine, and said Ottawa would temporarily lift all trade tariffs on Ukrainian imports.
Further military aid has also been promised. "We will pursue our ongoing military and defense assistance to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, continue supporting Ukraine in defending its networks against cyber incidents, and expand our cooperation, including on information security," the statement reads, without providing further details.
Apart from that, the Group of Seven also announced a set of measures designed to limit Russia's access to "financial channels and ability to pursue their objectives," committing to phasing out "dependency on Russian energy" and "phasing out or banning the import of Russian oil," although no specific deadline has been set.
Other measures include further restrictions on Russian banks and the financial sector, and personal sanctions against Russian "elites" and their family members deemed to be close to Putin or who support him. The seven nations also vowed to "continue ... efforts to fight off the Russian regime's attempts to spread its propaganda," and said that "respectable companies" should not provide "revenue to the Russian regime or its affiliates."
Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine's failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow's eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols were designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.
The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.
See also:
'Victory over death itself': Why the 9th of May is so important for RussiansAlso check out SOTT radio's:
NewsReal: USA vs Russia: Could Proxy War in Ukraine Escalate to Nuclear Conflict?
Europe should thank to Russia every day.
Turkey was under pressure from Gernay and England for joining the war on their side but despite finacial problem Turkey did not enter the war. Turkey also helped some jews escape by issuing Turkish passports to them and bringing them to Turkey by train accompanied by Turkish diplomats.
The Ottoman Empire also welcomed jews from Spain after they were deported.