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Group of Seven says it is ready to collectively impose economic and financial sanctions on Moscow, which will have “serious and immediate” consequences for the Russian economy if the Kremlin orders any aggressive action against Ukraine, as Radio Liberty reported.
In a joint statement on February 14, finance ministers from a group of large Western economies said that the increase in Russian forces on Ukraine’s borders “is a cause for serious concern.”
“We, the G7 finance ministers, emphasize our readiness to act quickly and decisively to support the Ukrainian economy,” the joint statement reads.
“Any further military aggression by Russia against Ukraine will meet with a swift, coordinated, and decisive response… We are ready to collectively impose economic and financial sanctions that will have serious and immediate consequences for the Russian economy,” the G7 said.
On February 13, the United States said it estimated the number of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border at about 130,000. The United States, together with the EU and UK, is working on developing tools to curb the Kremlin’s appetites, in particular through the imposition of economic sanctions. However, according to the latest press reports, there is no mention of disconnecting the country from SWIFT.
As reported before, Budapest does not support the introduction of new sanctions against Russia and calls on EU colleagues to “seriously work out” the issue of restrictions. Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó stated this.
Swedish economist and a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council Anders Åslund assures that the Russian economy could grow 2.5-3% more each year if there were no sanctions. “Most importantly, Russia could take more loans. Other developing countries took out 30% more loans than Russia. Russia has lost these resources. At the same time, foreign investment has practically come to a halt. The total amount that Russia has lost over the course of 7 years, according to our calculations, is 950 billion dollars,” he said.
