Biden Hits Russia With Broad Sanctions for Putin’s War in Ukraine

President Biden, vowing to turn President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia into a “pariah,” announced tough new sanctions on Thursday aimed at cutting off Russia’s largest banks and some oligarchs from much of the global financial system and preventing the country from importing American technology critical to its defense, aerospace and maritime industries.

The package unveiled by the U.S. government is expected to ripple across companies and households in Russia, where anxiety over Mr. Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has already begun setting in. The nation’s stock market fell more than 30 percent on Thursday, wiping out a huge amount of wealth.

The new U.S. sanctions include harsh penalties against the two largest Russian financial institutions, which together account for more than half of the country’s banking assets.

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“This is a massive set of technology controls,” said Emily Kilcrease, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

The biggest impact would be on Russia’s economy and its military capability over time, she said, as electronics, airplanes and ships wear out and Russian entities find themselves unable to buy new generations of technology.

“It is freezing Russia’s technology stock where it is today,” Ms. Kilcrease said. “You can’t upgrade it, you can’t replace it, you can’t improve it.” Or as Mr. Aleksashenko put it: “That is a problem you cannot solve, no matter how much you are ready to pay.”

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