As Moscow’s war on Ukraine continues, the world’s seven richest nations will announce a ban on Russian gold imports, US President Joe Biden said on Sunday.
Leaders of the world’s seven wealthiest nations will meet in Germany to discuss additional sanctions against Russia as well as Ukraine’s medium- and long-term reconstruction.
Biden confirmed earlier reports of an impending ban.
“The United States has imposed unprecedented costs on (Russian President) Putin to deny him the revenue he needs to fund his war against Ukraine.”
“Together, the G7 will announce that we will ban the import of Russian gold, a major export that rakes in tens of billions of dollars for Russia,” he added.
According to SP Global data, Russia ranked second in terms of global gold output in 2020, accounting for 9% of total global output.
The UK government also confirmed on Sunday that a ban on Russian gold imports will be imposed, stating that new Russian gold exports will no longer be permitted into the UK, Canada, the United States, and Japan.
“London is a major global gold trading hub and UK sanctions, which will be the first of their kind to be implemented against Russia anywhere in the world, will have a huge impact on Putin’s ability to raise funds,” the government said in a statement.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the measures will directly hit Russian oligarchs “and strike at the heart of Putin’s war machine.”
“We need to starve the Putin regime of its funding. The UK and our allies are doing just that,” he added.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak also stated that the ban on new Russian-origin gold will affect over £13.5 billion ($16.6 billion) of UK imports from Russia.
According to the UK government statement, the gold import ban, which will come into force shortly, will apply to newly mined or refined gold.
It will not affect Russian-origin gold previously exported from Russia.
