A dramatic expansion of entities exposed to US sanctions for helping the Russian economy and an EU-led $50bn loan to ease the financial burden onwill be at the centre of discussions at a summit of the leaders of wealthy G7 nations in Puglia, Italy, starting on Thursday.
the Brazilian president. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will stage a joint press conference with the US president, Joe Biden. The aim is to show the west remains determined to confront Russia’s “arsenal of autocracy”, but is not preoccupied with its own problems. The US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said on Wednesday: “We are increasing the risk for financial institutions dealing with Russia’s war economy and eliminating paths for evasion, and diminishing Russia’s ability to benefit from access to foreign technology, equipment, software, and IT services.
The first centres on whether, as the US wishes, the annual profits derived from frozen Russian central bank state assets frozen by the G7 in 2022 and worth approximately $281bn could be mobilised to service the interest on a $50bn loan to Ukraine. The second concerns how far to try to punish China for its support for the Russian economy.