US ends normal trade ties with Russia over Ukraine invasion
WASHINGTON, United States — The US Congress voted Thursday to end normal trade relations with Moscow and codify the ban on Russian oil, as the White House ratchets up pressure on President Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine.
The legislation — which also applies to Russia's ally Belarus — enables President Joe Biden to inflict steep tariff hikes on imports from both countries.
Biden announced the steps in a speech last month arguing that Russia must "pay the price" for the bloodshed in its ex-Soviet neighbor, where it has denied accusations of committing atrocities.
"Putin must absolutely be held accountable for the detestable, despicable war crimes he is committing against Ukraine: the images we have seen coming out of that country... are just pure evil," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
"It reminds us of the worst moments in human history, caused by the evil man, Putin: hundreds of civilians murdered in cold blood."
A key principle of the World Trade Organization, the so-called most favored nation status known in the United States as permanent normal trade relations (PNTR), requires countries to guarantee one another equal tariff and regulatory treatment.
The latest trade sanction, which passed the House with support from every Democrat and just a handful of Republicans voting no, caps several rounds of measures intended primarily to sever Moscow's economic and financial ties with the rest of the world.
They have included banning Russian oil imports — a measure Biden already implemented by executive decree — seizing the assets of billionaires tied to Putin, and freezing the nation's stockpile of cash.
Unwavering support
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hailed the latest action as a sign that the United States was "unwavering" in its commitment to support Ukraine and hold Russia to account.
"Putin's aggression and barbaric war crimes have horrified the world and demand a strong response," she said in a statement.
Together, the moves have already pushed Moscow to the brink of a debt default.
They have also caused prices for key commodities like gasoline and wheat to soar, harming US consumers already facing the highest inflation in four decades.
The United States imported just under $30 billion in goods from Russia last year, including $17.5 billion in crude oil.
The legislation includes a measure to reauthorize Magnitsky Act sanctions that target human rights violations and corruption with visa bans, asset freezes and other penalties.
The United States moved Wednesday to block foreign investment in Russia and state-owned enterprises and levied further sanctions on the country's banks and senior officials.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told NBC News that global punishments had put the Russian economy into a "deep recession."
"And what we're seeing is a likely contraction of the Russian economy by about 15 percent," he said.
"That is dramatic... We've seen an exodus from Russia of virtually every major company in the world. And Putin, in the space of a matter of weeks, has basically shut down Russia to the world."
President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday secured Turkey's crucial backing for Ukraine's NATO aspirations after winning a US pledge for cluster munitions that could inflict massive damage on Russian forces on the battlefield.
Washington's decision to deliver the controversial weapons — banned across a large part of the world but not in Russia or Ukraine — dramatically ups the stakes in the war, which entered its 500th day Saturday.
Zelensky has been travelling across Europe trying to secure bigger and better weapons for his outmatched army, which has launched a long-awaited counteroffensive that is progressing less swiftly than Ukraine's allies had hoped. — AFP
Washington's decision to supply Ukraine with ATACMS long-range missiles is "a grave mistake", Russian ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov says Wednesday.
"The White House's decision to send long-range missiles to Ukrainians is a grave mistake. The consequences of this step, which was deliberately hidden from the public, will be of the most serious nature," he says in a statement. — AFP
President Vladimir Putin says Sunday that Russian forces had made gains in their Ukraine offensive including in Avdiivka, a symbolic industrial hub.
"Our troops are improving their position in almost all of this area, which is quite vast," he says in an interview on Russian television, an extract of which was posted on social media on Sunday. "This concerns the areas of Kupiansk, Zaporizhia and Avdiivka." — AFP
The regional governor says debris from a drone destroyed over the Russian region of Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, fell on homes and killed three people, including a young child.
The air defense system "shot down an aircraft-type UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) approaching the city", says Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, adding that the falling debris destroyed several homes.
"Most importantly, three people were killed, one of them a small child," he writes on the Telegram messaging app, accompanied by pictures of a house reduced to a pile of rubble behind red and white police tape. — AFP
Ukraine's air force says on Tuesday that it had destroyed 27 of 36 Russian attack drones overnight in the south of the country.
Ukrainian forces downed 27 "Shahed-136/131" drones in the southern Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa regions, the air force said on the messaging platform Telegram.
In all, Moscow had launched 36 of the Iranian-made drones from the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014, it says. — AFP
The Kremlin claims on Friday Russian forces never targeted civilian infrastructure after Ukraine blamed Moscow for a missile attack that killed over 50 people in the eastern village of Groza.
"We repeat that the Russian military does not strike civilian targets. Strikes are carried out on military targets, on places where military personnel are concentrated," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says in his daily briefing. — AFP
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