Biden Unveils Sanctions on Russian Banks, Stops Short of Cutting Country Off from Global Financial System

President Biden announced new sanctions on Russian banks in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, but declined to make good on his threat to sanction Vladimir Putin directly or to cut Russia off from the international banking system entirely.

“We’ve now sanctioned Russian banks that together hold around $1 trillion in assets,” Biden told reporters at the White House. Biden noted that the U.S. had already cut off Russia’s largest bank from the U.S. financial system.