The US will continue to impose further sanctions on Russia and is working with allies to continue to degrade its ability to fight the "unjust war" with Ukraine, said US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on the sidelines of G20 Meetings here today.
Ms Yellen said that their sanctions have had a very significant negative effect on Russia so far. "While by some measures the Russian economy has held up better than might initially have been expected, Russia is now running a significant budget deficit," US Treasury Secretary said, responding to a question over Russia sanctions.
"It's finding it extremely difficult because of our sanctions in our export controls to obtain the material that it needs to replenish its munitions of over 9,000 tanks that have been destroyed because of the war," Yellen said.
She claimed that sanctions had led to an exodus of some of the most qualified scientists and entrepreneurs in the Russian economy, also an exodus of foreign investment. "Russia is running down its holdings in its sovereign wealth fund."
Ms Yellen said that the price cap we have put on Russian oil is substantially reducing Russia's revenues. "Russia's revenues are down in January almost 50 per cent from where they were a year ago. So, Russia is suffering in terms of its Budget and its ability to acquire what it needs," she said, adding, "We will continue to impose further sanctions, working with our allies to continue to degrade Russia's ability to fight this unjust war."
Responding to a query with regards to the Russian invasion of Ukraine on how negotiations are taking a stronger position at the G20 meetings against the war, she said that is still under negotiation. The G20 communique that was issued in Bali contained strong language on this and the leaders' communique contained equally strong language.
On the sanctions, Ms Yellen said, "We have ongoing work on sanctions, working with our partners. We are seeking to strengthen sanctions and to make sure that we address violations of sanctions."
She said Russia could obtain the materials that are critical for their defence. "They are looking clearly to backfill to obtain that, and that's a particular focus that we have in mind, both with respect to enforcement and perhaps with respect to further sanctions," she added.
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