U.S. to focus sanctions on Russia’s defense sector - Treasury

The United States will apply economic and financial pressure tools primarily targeting Russia’s defense industry to thwart any attempt by Russia to renew its potential amid the war Moscow is waging in Ukraine.

That’s according to Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, one of the main U.S. coordinators on the Russian sanctions strategy, who spoke at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Ukrinform reports.

The U.S. and its allies will target the supply chains that contribute to the construction of Russia’s war machine, Adeyemo said, which includes “everything from looking at ways to go after the military devices that have been built to use not only in Ukraine, but to project power elsewhere,” according to The Journal Record.

“What that means practically is that with less money, Russia will have less money to invest in their military,” he said.

Adeyemo said Putin recently admitted that the Russian economy was going to have to transform. Adeyemo interpreted that to mean that “the Russian economy is less flexible, it’s smaller, it’s less able to project power into the future.”

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the U.S., along with 30 other nations comprising over 50% of global economy, have introduced unprecedented sanctions and export restrictions on Russia in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.