Biden denounced Vladimir Putin’s decision to move forward with the invasion. In a speech at the White House this afternoon, Biden told the nation:“Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences.”

Biden announced a new round of sanctions targeting Russian financial institutions and elite families. The sanctions call for Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, to be severed from the US financial system, restricting the bank’s access to transactions made in the American dollar. Full sanctions will also be imposed on four other financial institutions, including Russia’s second-largest bank of VTB, freezing all of their US-based assets.

Biden did not call for Russia to be banned from the Swift banking system, and he is not issuing direct sanctions on Putin, as some lawmakers have called for. Biden said some European leaders do not support cutting off Russia’s access to Swift, and he claimed direct sanctions on Putin were still possible, although he did not explain why he is not taking that step now.

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