Britain, the United States, Canada, and Japan will ban gold imports from Russia as part of new sanctions imposed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Downing Street announced on the first day of the G7 summit in Germany.
“The measures we have announced today will directly hit Russian oligarchs and strike at the heart of Putin’s war machine,” said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who will meet with the leaders of Germany’s most industrialized nations at a three-day G7 rally, reports Yahoo News.
The ban should take effect soon.
Russia is an important gold producer whose exports in 2021 were worth almost 15 billion euros, according to Downing Street.
The ban on gold on the London Stock Exchange, an important financial center for the exchange of raw materials, will be “an enormous blow to Putin’s fundraising capacity,” the British government added.
The measure will not apply to gold exported from Russia before the entry into force of this embargo.
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will welcome G7 leaders today, at the start of a three-day summit in the Bavarian Alps that will overshadow the war in Ukraine and its consequences such as rising energy and food prices.
G7 leaders are expected to show unity in support of Ukraine and continue to put pressure on the Kremlin for as long as necessary.
