Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky called on world leaders to impose further sanctions on Russia as at least 19 people lost their lives in the latest missile attacks by Russia on Monday and Tuesday.
Zelensky held a video conference with the leaders of G7 countries — France, Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Germany and Italy — even as Ukraine faced attacks on Russia on Tuesday.
BBC quoted Zelensky as saying, "For such a new wave of terror there must be a new wave of responsibility for Russia - new sanctions, new forms of political pressure and new forms of support for Ukraine."
Zelensky has been speaking to world leaders amid the new attacks, which Russian president Vladimir Putin has said was in retaliation to the Kerch bridge blasts. The crucial bridge connects Russia to Crimea and Russia had called the Kerch Bridge explosion an act of terrorism.
The Russian state-owned TASS news agency reported that eight people had been arrested in connection to the bridge explosion. "So far, five Russian nationals, as well as three Ukrainians and Armenians who took part in preparations for the attack have been arrested as part of a criminal case," the report quoted Russia's Federal Security Service as saying.
Countries the world over issued sanctions on Russia as it attacked Ukraine in February 2022. As Zelensky called for more sanctions, here is a look at sanctions that already exist on Russia.
What sanctions has the US imposed?
As Russia attacked Ukraine in February, US president Joe Biden announced, "I'm going to begin to impose sanctions in response, far beyond the steps we and our Allies and partners implemented in 2014. And if Russia goes further with this invasion, we stand prepared to go further as — with sanction."
The US blocked Russian financial institutions V.E.B. and their military bank. The US also declared that comprehensive sanctions on Russian sovereign debt would lead to the cutting off of Russia's government from Western financing.
Washington imposed sanctions on Alfa Bank, Russia's largest privately-owned financial institution, and Sberbank, freezing all assets that are in connection with the US financial system. It prohibits all US persons from doing business with them.
The US also announced full blocking sanctions on Russian state-owned enterprises, prohibiting US persons from transacting with these entities and freezing any of their assets "subject to US jurisdiction, thereby damaging the Kremlin's ability to use these entities it depends on to enable and fund its war in Ukraine".
In March, the US also banned oil and gas exports from Russia in a bid to affect the mainstay of the Russian economy.
The US imposed full blocking sanctions in April against Russian elites and their family members. This included Putin's adult children, foreign minister Lavrov's wife and daughter, and members of Russia's Security Council including former president and prime minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev and prime minister Mikhail Mishustin. "These individuals have enriched themselves at the expense of the Russian people. Some of them are responsible for providing the support necessary to underpin Putin's war on Ukraine. This action cuts them off from the U.S. financial system and freezes any assets they hold in the United States," a White House statement had said.
In 2014, during an escalating situation in Crimea, the US had imposed multiple sanctions against Russia. It included sanctions on government officials — these individuals are Vladislav Surkov, Sergey Glazyev, Leonid Slutsky, Andrei Klishas, Valentina Matviyenko, Dmitry Rogozin, and Yelena Mizulina. It imposed sanctions on Crimea-based separatist leaders Sergey Aksyonov and Vladimir Konstantinov, former Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Viktor Medvedchuk and former president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, for "their actions or policies that threaten the peace, security, stability, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of Ukraine and in undermining the Government of Ukraine".
What are the UK sanctions?
Boris Johnson, UK prime minister at the time, announced what was termed its 'largest ever' set of sanctions against Russia in February. The UK too banned Russia's industries "from raising finance on the UK's money markets". The country announced the freezing of the Russian banking system from the UK financial market, Russia's national airline Aeroflot banned from UK airspace and cut off the access of wealthy Russians to UK banks.
The UK imposed sanctions on more than 100 companies and oligarchs worth 100s of billions of pounds as well.
Putin and Lavrov's UK assets were frozen and both were blocked from any business with the UK in the future.
The UK froze all assets of all Russian banks in coordination with the US. This meant that Russian companies were prevented from borrowing from the UK markets. A statement said, "This is in addition to banning the Russian state itself from raising funds in the UK."
UK banned the export of electronics, telecommunications, and aerospace equipment from Russia as well.
In the most recent sanctions on September 30, the UK announced, "Russia will lose access to major western services that Russia depends on, including: IT consultancy, architectural services, engineering services, and transactional legal advisory services for certain commercial activity."
This was in response to Russia illegally annexing Ukrainian regions. The UK banned the export of close to 700 industrial and technological goods and summoned Russian Ambassador Andrey Kelin to protest against the country's actions in Ukraine.
Sanctions from European Union and European Countries
The European Union (EU) and several European countries pushed back on Russia as it went to war with Ukraine. On February 27, the EU announced a shutdown of its airspace for Russian aircraft, including private jets owned by Russian oligarchs and planes chartered by even private persons from Russia.
To curb disinformation regarding the war spread by Russian state-owned media, the EI banned "Kremlin's media machine". Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission said, "The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik, as well as their subsidiaries will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin's war and to sow division in our Union."
Since then, the EU has issued eight "packages" of sanctions on the Kremlin, the latest being on October 6. "This package introduces new EU import bans worth €7 billion to curb Russia's revenues, as well as export restrictions, which will further deprive the Kremlin's military and industrial complex of key components and technologies and Russia's economy of European services and expertise. The sanctions also deprive the Russian army and its suppliers from further specific goods and equipment needed to wage its war on Ukrainian territory," a statement from the European Commission read.
In its August sanctions, the EU announced a complete ban on "seaborne crude oil and petroleum products", which included coal. It also banned the export on chemicals that could aid Russia in making chemical weapons.
Belarus, which has been Russia's ally in war, was also targeted by the EU.
Nord Stream 2, a Baltic Sea gas pipeline project that was supposed to bring gas from Russia directly to Germany, was halted too, Reuters reported.
What were the sanctions from Asian countries?
From banking sanctions to trade sanctions, several Asian countries also pushed back on Russia. Taiwan, the world's largest microchip manufacturer put in curbs to ensure technology products and chips were not exported to Russia to stop it from being used in the war, Reuters had reported in April. World's largest chip making company, Taiwan's TSMC, had also left the Russian market, the report had quoted a US official as saying.
Singapore announced sanctions with "aim to constrain Russia's capacity to conduct war against Ukraine and undermine its sovereignty". Like the US and the UK, Singapore took action against Russian banks and fund raising activities by any Russian person or entity.
Japan sought to isolate Russia through financial sanctions including sanctions on Russia's central bank by limiting transactions. The country's cabinet decided to impose new sanctions as recently as on October 7, with the public broadcaster NHK reporting that the assets of 81 people and nine organisations will be frozen in addition to the existing list.