US and UK announce stricter measures to reduce Russia’s revenue from metals trade

Russia describes the action as an “unjustified and politicized” step that represents a “reckless shot”

The spokesman for the US State Department, Matthew Miller, reported this Friday that the United States and the United Kingdom will take additional measures to “disrupt” the profits Russia makes from metals trade in order to deprive the country of “the revenue necessary to finance its illegal war against Ukraine.”

“The United States, in coordination with the United Kingdom, is taking today additional measures to disrupt Russian revenues from its metal trade by prohibiting the import into the United States of aluminum, copper and nickel of Russian origin,” the Department announced in a statement.

Along the same lines, the US Treasury Department has announced that it also prohibits “the export, re-export, sale or provision of guarantee services to any person located in the Russian Federation of aluminum, copper or nickel of Russian origin in a global exchange of metals and services to those metals of Russian origin as part of the physical settlement of a derivative contract,” the aforementioned note states.

These prohibitions, include the London Metal Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchangetwo of the largest in the world, which “will no longer accept new aluminum, copper and nickel produced by Russia” considerably reducing the Kremlin’s income.

“Cable the power of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to wage his illegal war In Ukraine it is best achieved if we act together with our allies. Thanks to British leadership in this area, our decisive action with the United States to jointly ban Russian metals on the two largest exchanges will prevent the Kremlin from channeling more money into their war machine,” argued British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt.

In addition, “by taking this action specifically and responsibly”not only will Russia’s profits be reduced but at the same time the US and the United Kingdom will “protect” their “partners and allies from unwanted side effects,” US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has added.

The measure will not affect, however, the acquisition of existing reserves of Russian metals. that are already listed on the stock market, which will not suffer restrictions “in order to avoid disturbances in the markets.”

Likewise, Titanium and platinum group metals are excluded from this action.such as platinum and palladium, “due to sensitivities in the supply chain”, the British Executive has reasoned.

“Reckless shooting”

The Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoli Antonov, has interpreted the new sanctions against Russia as a signal from Washington to kyiv not to accept negotiations with Moscow.

“The strict bans announced on trade in our aluminum, copper and nickel are another unjustified and politicized step”Antonov denounced in a publication on the Embassy’s Telegram profile in which he described this decision as “a kind of reckless shooting,” “It’s not even a shot in the foot”.

In this regard, the Russian representative has criticized that “the Americans themselves have already reduced purchases of Russian metals to a minimum for some time now”, forcing companies to “reject favorable contracts with reliable suppliers” from Russiaand has hinted that the current measure “is based on calculations so that raw material prices do not skyrocket in the US.”

However, the ambassador has defended, these sanctions can “easily cause imbalances in global markets by involving their allies.

“In this case, the objective of the sanctions is clear: a signal to kyiv with instructions not to accept anythingeven if that leads to the fall of the front,” Antonov said, alleging that the United States has presented these illegitimate measures as proof of its “leadership” in containing Russia.