Russia steps in the US from the back door
As sanctions against Russia continue to have an impact on the global economy, it has been reported that the Biden administration in the US is seeking to mitigate this impact and is taking steps to do so. The Biden administration in the US is taking backdoor steps to mitigate the negative impact of sanctions against Russia on the global economy. According to information provided by sources familiar with the matter to Bloomberg, the Biden administration has asked JPMorgan and Citi to continue doing business with certain strategic Russian companies, including Gazprom. US Congressional representatives had sternly warned the CEOs of JPMorgan and Citi to avoid doing business with Russian companies in hearings in September. On the other hand, the European Union, which has been criticized for being slow to implement the aid it promised to Ukraine, is preparing to submit a new aid package worth 18 billion euros for approval. The package aims to meet Ukraine’s funding needs in 2023. The package will also aim to fund the country’s reconstruction. Wall Street banks had pulled out of Russian transactions Two of Wall Street’s biggest banks, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, announced in June that they were pulling out of Russian bond transactions after the Biden administration banned U.S. investors from trading in Russian bonds. “Consistent with the updated guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and Goldman Sachs’s gradual tapering of its Russia-related transactions, the company will not conduct certain market-making transactions with Russian assets,” Goldman Sachs said in a statement. The Treasury Department’s statement on June 6 increased financial restrictions, catching market players off guard and prompting heated discussions with legal departments. Previous U.S. policies allowed brokerages such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan to help clients evaluate cheap Russian bonds.