New U.S. sanctions on Russia to look at finance, energy sectors

WASHINGTON, Sept 28 (Reuters) – The United States will impose further sanctions on Russia, as it looks to the finance sector and Moscow’s ability to produce energy, the U.S. State Department’s head of sanctions coordination said on Wednesday.

In prepared testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, James O’Brien said Washington is working with allies and partners to quickly impose severe economic costs on Moscow over “sham” referendums held by Russia in occupied regions of Ukraine.

O’Brien said he expects that the Biden administration’s pace of announcing sanctions on Russia on average every six weeks will continue, as Washington continues to focus on choke points in the Russian economy and its military supply chains.

“There will be more packages. We are working on more sanctions,” O’Brien told the committee.

“Everything is on the table,” he said, adding that Washington would look to the financial sector and high technology, especially for energy exploitation, and human rights violators.

Previous sanctions include the choking off Moscow’s imports of cutting edge technologies like semiconductors, sensors, and navigation that are expected to hurt Russia’s long term ability to produce fossil fuels like oil.

Moscow was poised on Wednesday to annex a swath of Ukraine, releasing what it called vote tallies showing support in four partially occupied provinces to join Russia, after what Kyiv and the West denounced as…