The U.S. and allies are poised to announce new sanctions Wednesday, including a ban on all new investments in Russia, to punish the Kremlin for alleged atrocities committed by its forces in Ukraine.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the United Nations to do more to stop Moscow’s aggression, saying Russia was abusing its veto powers at the Security Council to block peace efforts. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will visit Kyiv this week as the European Union proposes a ban on coal imports from Russia.
Russian default risks rose after the U.S. Treasury blocked the use of the country’s accounts at American banks to make dollar debt payments. Russia’s efforts to avoid a sovereign default took another blow after the U.S. Treasury halted dollar debt payments from the country’s accounts at U.S. banks.
The announcement is intended to force Russia into either draining its domestic dollar reserves or spending new revenue to make bond payments, or else go into default, according to a spokesperson for the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. The price of insuring Russia’s debt jumped on Tuesday, signaling an almost 90% chance that it will default within five years.
