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US, EU to toughen anti-Russian sanctions after Biden’s visit to Europe, White House says

According to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, the announcement about new sanctions will be made on Thursday, following discussions with US allies in Brussels

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan

© AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

WASHINGTON, March 22. /TASS/. The United States and the European Union will impose more sanctions on Russia and toughen the existing ones following US President Joe Biden’s upcoming visit to Brussels, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has said.

"He [Biden] will join our partners in imposing further sanctions on Russia and tightening the existing sanctions to crack down on evasion and to ensure robust enforcement," the official told reporters in the White House on Tuesday.

According to Sullivan, the announcement about new sanctions will be made on Thursday, following discussions with US allies in Brussels. At the same time, Sullivan gave no details of the forthcoming sanctions.

"What I will say is that one of the key elements of that announcement will focus not just on adding new sanctions, but on ensuring that there is joint effort to crack down on evasion, on sanctions busting, on any attempt by any country to help Russia basically undermine, weaken, or get around the sanctions," the White House official said.

"We have applied an enormous amount of economic pressure. And in order to sustain and escalate that pressure over time, part of that is about new designations, new targets, but a big part of it is about effective enforcement and evasion," he added.According to Sullivan, the announcement about new sanctions will be made on Thursday, following discussions with US allies in Brussels.

According to an earlier statement by the White House, Biden will visit Brussels on March 24, to participate in an emergency NATO summit and a Group of Seven (G7) meeting. Besides, he will join a scheduled EU summit.

On Friday, March 25, Biden will depart to Warsaw for negotiations with Polish President Andrzej Duda. The US president will return to Washington on the same day.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine, stressing that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories. Putin said that the goals of the operation are demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. Subsequently, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and some other countries started imposing sanctions on Russian individuals and companies.

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