Here Comes Obama's Statement On Russian Sanctions...
Obama's statement will come from the Brady Briefing Room of the White House.
The Obama administration leveled its most punitive sanctions yet against Russia and the government of President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, amid increasing tensions on the Ukrainian border between Ukraine's forces and pro-Russian separatists.
The new sanctions are aimed at a series of large banks and energy and defense firms, marking a significant escalation in the U.S.'s standoff with Russia. Up to this point, the sanctions had only been aimed at several Russian individuals and their businesses involved in the destabilization of the situation in Ukraine.
Among the targeted firms on the new sanctions list include Rosneft, the world's largest oil company; Gazprombank, Russia's largest private bank; Novatek, Russia's largest independent natural-gas producer; and Vnesheconombank, a development lender.
Other entities were included on the list, including the entirety of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" and "Luhansk People's Republic" in Ukraine. Several Russian government individuals were also sanctioned, including senior Russian Federal Security Service official Sergey Beseda.
The sanctions restrict Russian access to U.S. debt markets. Senior administration officials portrayed the entities sanctioned as now being cut off "from the U.S. financial system and the U.S. economy."
This post will be updated when Obama speaks.