Joe Biden Extends National Emergency, Sanctions Amid Russia’s Threat to Ukraine

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden renewed an earlier executive order that had proclaimed a national emergency in the US in connection with the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.

After Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, then-President Barack Obama issued Executive Order 13660, which was later expanded by several executive orders as the confrontation between the two countries grew more acrimonious and culminated in Moscow’s invasion last year.

Sanctions relating to Russia’s conduct in Ukraine that are detrimental to American interests are included in the directives. Several days before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Biden issued another executive order that extended the previous orders’ definition of a national emergency which was due to expire on March 6.

The directives will be extended for an additional year by the continuance that Biden announced on Wednesday. The confrontation between Russia and Ukraine has gotten worse in recent weeks, with Russian forces, who control a large chunk of eastern and southern Ukraine, making several attempts to advance along hundreds of miles of the front line.

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US Sanctions Against Russia Extended

By executive order issued on March 6, 2014, then-US President Barack Obama declared a national emergency related to the situation in Ukraine. It has since been extended numerous times after Russia acknowledged the L/DPR (the self-declared Luhansk/Donetsk People’s Republics) terrorist organizations as legal entities.

Additionally, the US presidents announced new sanctions measures in December 2014 and September 2018. On February 24, one year after Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, the United States issued fresh sanctions against that country. 

More than 200 people and organizations, including Russia and unaffiliated third parties in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, who support Moscow’s military endeavors are subject to the sanctions. Also, on March 3, US President Joe Biden approved a law that places a 200% levy on imports of aluminum from Russia, the second-largest producer of metal in the world.

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