The U.S. has imposed sanctions on Russia's Gazprombank, which could potentially cut off its access to SWIFT.
This is reported by the Financial Times.
The list announced on Thursday effectively excludes the state-owned "Gazprombank," the main channel for Russian payments for energy supplies, along with its six international subsidiaries from the global financial system.
According to the United States, Russia has utilized "Gazprombank" as a channel to procure military equipment for the war in Ukraine, as well as for payments to soldiers and compensations for the families of those killed in combat.
The UK and Canada imposed sanctions on "Gazprombank" in the early weeks of the war in 2022.
Previously, the US had refrained from following this example, primarily to allow European countries to continue paying for Russian gas supplies.
The US sanctions will close one of the few remaining windows in Russia for international banking operations, prohibiting Gazprombank from conducting transactions in dollars.
The US has also imposed sanctions on over 50 small Russian banks and 40 securities registrars, as well as 15 technocrats.
Reminder:
The US is considering the possibility of imposing sanctions against the major state bank of Russia - "Gazprombank," which still has access to the international SWIFT system and currency transactions.