U.S. joins EU and U.K. in sanctioning Putin directly

The U.S. will impose sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced on Friday.

Why it matters: It is extremely rare for the U.S. to sanction a sitting world leader, and the Kremlin had previously said it would consider sanctions on Putin himself to be a de facto severing of relations between the U.S. and Russia.