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The Biden administration was caught giving inside information to some of the country’s largest banks, according to Bloomberg.
Biden provided details on possible sanctions against Russia as part of its efforts to combat a potential invasion by Russia into Ukraine.
These sanctions against Russia could potentially disrupt the entire global financial system.
Senior administration officials within the Biden White House spoke with executives from banks including Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
A chilling warning from Russian President Vladimir Putin accuses the U.S. of ignoring its security concerns.
An invasion by Russia into Ukraine is imminent and may even be “virtually certain once the ground had frozen later in February,” according to reports.
Putin warned French President Emmanuel Macron, “US and NATO responses did not take account of such key Russian concerns as preventing NATO expansion, non-deployment of strike weapons systems near Russian borders, or returning the alliance’s military potential and infrastructure in Europe to positions existing in 1997.”
The Kremlin provided a readout of the phone call between Putin and Macron.
In response, Joe Biden had a phone call with Ukraine and it “did not go well,” Daily Wire reported.
The White House fired back by dismissing the anonymous leaks about the call, saying it’s “completely false.”
The United States Embassy has officially advised all Americans in Ukraine to leave the country either by commercial travel or private means.
“The security situation in Ukraine continues to be unpredictable due to the increased threat of Russian military action and can deteriorate with little notice,” the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.
More from Bloomberg:
Tensions have soared after Russia amassed tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine’s border. While officials in Moscow have repeatedly said they have no intention of invading the country, Western allies are discussing a variety of measures should activity escalate.
The U.S. and European Union are honing in on a package that would include targeting Moscow’s ability to convert currency. While energy penalties and cutting off access to the Swift system, which manages 42 million orders a day for payments, are on the table, Swift is considered the nuclear option and the most divisive. One person familiar with the discussions said it’s coming up only occasionally in talks between the administration and the banks, as the lenders ask whether such a measure is likely.
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“Implications for global trade and the financial markets must be a major consideration for policy makers,” Tomasz Noetzel and Jonathan Tyce, analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence, said in a research report. “Russia is one of the largest exporters of oil and gas, and relies on the system to settle dollar-denominated bills.”
One person familiar with the matter said Biden administration officials have told the banks they’re concerned about possible spillover effects similar to what happened in 2018, when sanctions against Russia disrupted the global supply chain for aluminum and sent prices for the metal soaring 30%. Those measures hit United Co. Rusal especially hard, limiting its access to the $140 billion global aluminum industry.
