President Biden quietly dispatched a team of financial experts to NATO headquarters in Belgium just days before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
FILE - U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo speaks during an address at Brown University, March 15, 2022, in Providence, R.I. Just days beforeRussia invaded Ukraineon Feb. 24, President Joe Biden quietly dispatched a team toEuropean Unionheadquarters in Belgium. Raimondo said what ultimately drove the agreement to an export ban and the groundwork to immobilize about half the foreign holdings of Russia's central bank, was the threat of Putin's imminent attack on Ukraine. on Feb.
, according to Biden administration officials. Some of the exports the U.S. wanted to ban were met with reluctance by the Europeans, who would essentially be telling their own companies to forgo several billion dollars in annual revenues from Russia.When there was a deadlock, U.S. negotiators would put Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on the phone.
The wealthiest nations in the world — outside of China — are directly confronting Putin on their preferred terms. They have imposed sanctions in which their strengths intersect with Russia's vulnerabilities. Russia is reliant on the U.S., the EU, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan for cutting-edge technologies and investment, so the allies decided to cut Moscow off.
One EU diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal talks, outlined in an interview as far back as January potential penalties that included the export ban, noting that the EU had held together its coalition on enforcing sanctions since Russia's 2014 occupation of parts of the Donbas region in Ukraine.to cripple Putin's ability to fight by denying it access to the semiconductors, computers, telecommunications equipment, lasers and sensors integral to war materiel.
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