ELMAU, Germany – G7 economic powers will ban Russian gold imports in a tightening of control that Western nations have tried to impose in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutal war in Ukraine.
U.S. President Joe Biden announced the plan when G7 leaders were due to arrive at a Schloss Elmau, the luxury resort of the Bavarian Alps, for a summit where discussions on the war and the global economic consequences.
“Together, the G7 will announce that we will ban the import of Russian gold, a major export that accumulates tens of billions of dollars for Russia,” Biden tweeted.
Western allies have imposed six rounds of sanctions in response to the war, many of them designed to decimate Russia’s extraction-based economy. These have included bans on Russian oil and extensive export controls aimed at denying Russia the crucially needed technology.
Western allies have also sent supplies of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, although they have refused to join the fighting directly.
Sanctions, though historic in scale and scope, have yet to deter Putin or lead him to withdraw his armies, which now occupy large swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine, including the so-called land bridge in Crimea. , the Ukrainian peninsula that Russia invaded and annexed in 2014.
Russian forces failed in their attempt to capture Kyiv, the capital, and overthrow the Ukrainian government, but now it seems they are determined to conquer and occupy the entire eastern Donbass region of Ukraine.
In a statement, the UK government confirmed the move, saying: “The UK, the US, Japan and Canada will lead the G7 to ban the import of Russian gold, the country’s largest non-energy export.”