Background Press Call by a Senior Administration Official on Imposing Additional Severe Costs on Russia
FEBRUARY 27, 2022
Via Teleconference
(February 26, 2022)
MODERATOR: Thanks, everyone, for joining. As a reminder, this call is on background, attributable to a “senior administration official.” We’re going to be discussing further restrictive economic measures we’re imposing on Russia today in coordination with Allies and partners.
For your awareness and not for reporting, the speaker on the call today is [senior administration official].
The contents of the call are embargoed until the end of this call.
So with that, [senior administration official], I’ll turn it over to you.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thanks, everybody, for joining. So as a result of Putin’s war of choice and ongoing assault on Ukraine and the core principles of peace and stability that have prevailed since the Second World War, President Biden and the leaders of the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom decided to take further measures to isolate Russia from the global financial system and the global economy.
In an unprecedented act of global sanctions coordination, our leaders decided to take three actions today: one, to apply the Iran model and disconnect sanctioned Russian banks from SWIFT; two, to undermine the Russian Central Bank’s ability to defend the ruble; and three, to launch a joint task force to collectively hunt down the physical assets of sanctioned Russian companies and oligarchs — their yachts, jets, fancy cars, and luxury homes.
Let me go into some detail on each of these three measures.