Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the White House will soon be announcing “a substantial pickup in Russia sanctions.”
“We are going to either announce after the close this afternoon— or first thing tomorrow morning, a substantial pickup in Russia sanctions,” Bessent told reporters at the White House Wednesday afternoon.
“You’ll have to wait and see what it is,” he added.
A White House official said President Donald Trump is expected to announce a significant uptick in new sanctions related to Russia. The sanctions are not expected to be about China.
Later Wednesday, Bessent told Fox Business that the new sanctions will be “one of the largest,” noting Trump’s disappointment with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the state of talks to end the war in Ukraine, following a summit in Alaska more than two months ago.
“President Putin has not come to the table in an honest, forthright manner as we hoped. There were talks in Alaska; President Trump walked away when he realized that things were not moving forward,” Bessent said. “There have been behind-the-scenes talks, but I believe that the president is disappointed at … where we are in these talks.”
“Either this evening or first thing tomorrow morning, we are going to be announcing a substantial increase in Russia’s sanctions. I’m not going to give you the exact sanctions, but I can tell you that this will be one of the largest sanctions that we have done against the Russian Federation,” Bessent continued.
“These are sanctions, not secondary tariffs,” Bessent said. “These are going to be substantial and powerful, and we are urging our European and G7 allies plus Canada and Australia to come along with us.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
