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- Four US senators have introduced legislation sanctions on Russia’s gold.
- Secondary sanctions would discourage the buy of Russian gold and plug a loophole that permits the Russian Federation to reduce the financial effect of sanctions.
“This proposal would discourage the purchase of Russian gold and close the loophole that allows Russia to offset the financial impact of sanctions,” the senators continued. “By penalizing these reserves, we risk further isolating Russia from the world economy and complicating Putin’s increasingly expensive military campaign.”
Yet another day of sanctions, but…
The “Stop Russian Government and Oligarchs from Limiting Democracy (Stop Russian GOLD) Act” was presented by Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), and Angus King (I-ME) on Tuesday.
“Russia has stolen a leaf from Venezuela’s book by using a loophole in current sanctions that allow them to launder money through gold purchases and sales,” Senator Cornyn stated.
According to the senators’ declaration, “the Russian Federation is acquiring gold to counteract the depreciation of its currency, the ruble, and then selling that gold on foreign markets in return for high-value cash.”
The measure “would impose secondary sanctions to anybody interacting with or transferring gold from Russia’s central bank assets, or selling gold physically or electronically in Russia,” according to the release, which goes on to explain:
Secondary sanctions included in this law would discourage the buy of Russian gold and plug a loophole that permits the Russian Federation to reduce the financial effect of sanctions.
Are crypto sanctions valid?
Meanwhile, a number of lawmakers, notably Senator Elizabeth Warren, are concerned about Russia avoiding sanctions through the use of cryptocurrencies.
The G7 and the European Union have previously said that they are taking steps to prevent cryptocurrencies from being used to circumvent sanctions. Furthermore, the US Treasury Department stated that it is monitoring crypto activity in order to avoid sanctions evasion.
However, a number of experts, including the CEOs of cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Binance, have stated that bitcoin is not a viable tool for Russia to avoid sanctions.
Carol House, the National Security Council’s director of cybersecurity, agreed. “The scale required by the Russian state to fully avoid all US and partner financial prohibitions would very certainly render Bitcoin ineffective as a primary currency,” she added.
Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while pursuing his post-graduation major in blockchain development. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing, along with coding. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing skills, and a reliable craft at explaining the concepts such as blockchain programming, languages and token minting. He also frequently shares technical details and performance indicators of ICOs and IDOs.
