U.S. toughens sanctions on Russia's oil, gas, banking sectors – media

The Trump administration is imposing tougher restrictions on Russia's oil, gas, and banking sectors by further limiting Russia's access to American payment systems.

That is according to CBS News, citing internal sources,Ukrinform reports.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department revoked a 60-day exemption introduced by the Biden administration in January, which allowed certain energy transactions involving sanctioned Russian banks to continue. From now on, Russian banks will no longer have access to U.S. payment systems for large energy transactions.

The Russian financial institutions that had been exempt from sanctions included Vnesheconombank, Bank Financial Corporation Otkritie, Sovcombank, Sberbank, VTB Bank, Alfa-Bank, Rosbank, Bank Zenit, Bank Saint-Petersburg and the Central Bank of Russia.

Cutting off Russian banks from the U.S. financial system makes it hardert for other countries to purchase Russian oil, thereby reducing Russia's global oil supply.

The tougher sanctions are part of Trump's strategy to pressure Russia into accepting the proposed 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine.

As reported by Ukrinform, on Thursday, Trump stated that U.S. officials are meeting with "President Putin and others" for very serious discussions.