President Joe Biden announced on Friday a host of new retaliatory actions for Russia’s war in Ukraine, hitting Moscow’s food and alcohol imports.
Biden, minutes after concluding a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, stated that the “world is united and we stand with the people of Ukraine,” and he also the United States “will not let autocrats and a would-be-emperor dictate the direction of the world.”
The actions announced Friday include banning all imports of Russian vodka, seafood, and diamonds, designating another tranche of Russian oligarchs and their family members on the U.S. sanctions list, and banning the export of certain luxury goods to Russia.
Furthermore, Biden announced that the U.S. would join the European Union and G-7 nations in revoking Russia’s “favored nation” trading status. Congress recently passed bipartisan legislation toward that end, and Biden thanked both Democratic and Republican leaders for holding off on sending that bill to his desk to sign until he could get other U.S. allies on board with the coordinated response.
Finally, the president stated that the U.S. and its allies would move to block Russia’s ability to borrow capital from “leading multilateral institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.”
“We’re going to continue to stand together with our allies in Europe and send an unmistakable message we’ll defend every single inch of NATO territory with the full might of the united and galvanized NATO,” he said Friday. “Democracies are rising to meet this moment, rallying the world to the side of peace and the side of security. We’re showing our strength and we will not falter.”
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You can watch Biden’s remarks in full below.
