U.S. Treasury Escalates Sanctions on Russia for Its Atrocities in Ukraine

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) says that it has taken major steps to degrade the economy of the Russian Federation in response to Russia’s continued brutal war against Ukraine and atrocities against Ukrainian citizens. Among other things, the department is imposing full blocking sanctions on Sberbank, Russia’s largest state-owned bank, and Alfa-Bank, Russia’s largest private bank. Treasury is also targeting family members of President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minster Sergey Lavrov, as well as Russian Security Council members who are complicit in the war against Ukraine.