Since 2014, under three different presidents, the U.S. has imposed travel bans, asset freezes and finance and trade restrictions against hundreds of Russian individuals and companies. These sanctions are part of a multinational effort to punish President Vladimir Putin’s government for alleged trouble-making beyond its borders and online. Still more sanctions are seen as possible by the U.S. and its European allies should Putin decide to invade Ukraine.
More than 700 Russian people and companies have been targeted by U.S. sanctions. Individuals face limits on their travel and freezes on at least some of their assets, while some top Russian state banks and companies, including oil and gas giants, are effectively barred from getting financing through U.S. banks and markets. They include billionaires such as Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg; close political allies of Putin including his former Chief of Staff Sergei Ivanov and Dmitry Rogozin, a deputy prime minister from 2011 to 2018; and corporate titans such as Rosneft, Gazprom, Sberbank and VTB Group. As a result of sanctions added by President Joe Biden, U.S. financial institutions are barred from participating in the primary market for new debt issued by the Russian central bank, Finance Ministry and sovereign wealth fund.
