U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday announced a new round of sanctions targeting Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.
The sanctions target Russian banks, oligarchs, and high-tech sectors, Biden said. The United States and its allies will block assets of four large Russian banks, impose export controls and sanction oligarchs.
"Putin chose this war and he will bear the consequences of his action," Biden said. "Sanctions will cause severe costs on the Russian economy both immediately and over time," the president said.
"Between our actions and those of our allies and partners, we estimate that we will cut off more than half of Russia's high tech imports," he added.
The penalties fall in line with the White House's insistence that it would look to hit Russia's financial system and Putin's inner circle, while also imposing export controls that would aim to starve Russia's industries and military of U.S. semiconductors and other high-tech products.
Biden, for now, held off imposing some of the most severe sanctions, including cutting Russia out of the SWIFT payment system which allows for the transfers of money from bank to bank around the globe claiming European partners opposed the move for now.
He also said Russia's energy sector would not be included in the sanctions so as not to harm the American economy.
The president said he would send more American troops to Germany as U.S. forces have deployed in eastern Europe to bolster NATO's security claiming Putin's aspirations go beyond the Ukraine.
He repeated his earlier words that no U.S. forces will intervene in the fighting anywhere out of NATO nations but will join with allies to protect members of the alliance.