The U.S. Canada, Japan and the U.K will ban imports of Russian gold, the Treasury Department announced.
The new sanctions are the latest push by the U.S. and some Group of Seven partners to keep the Russian economy away from international commerce and payments systems.
Russia produces around 10% of the gold mined globally each year. Gold is also the country’s largest export after oil and gas.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen highlighted the multilateral approach to enforce economic penalties on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine that started last February.
The Treasury imposed sanctions on over 100 targets, mostly Russian companies critical to the country’s defense industrial and manufacturing base.
“Broad multilateral commitments and actions by G7 members this week further cut off the Russian Federation’s access to technology that is critical to their military,” Yellen said in a press release. “Targeting Russia’s defense industry will degrade Putin’s capabilities and further impede his war against Ukraine, which has already been plagued by poor morale, broken supply chains and logistical failures.”
The decision came as President Joe Biden and other world leaders met in the G7 meeting in Germany.
The ban against gold mined in Russia does not apply to metal that was located outside of Russia prior to Tuesday’s declaration, the Treasury added.
