Biden: G-7 Countries Will Ban Russian Gold in Response to Ukraine War

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at the "Global Infrastructure" side event as Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau look on during the G-7 summit at Schloss Elmau near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, on June 26, 2022. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

President Joe Biden announced on June 26 that the Group of Seven countries will ban Russian gold in response to the conflict in Ukraine.

“The United States has imposed unprecedented costs on Putin to deny him the revenue he needs to fund his war against Ukraine,” Biden said. “Together, the G-7 will announce that we will ban the import of Russian gold, a major export that rakes in tens of billions of dollars for Russia.”

A formal announcement is scheduled for June 28, according to the White House.

Biden and other world leaders were meeting on the summit’s opening day to discuss how to secure energy supplies and tackle inflation, aiming to keep the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine from splintering the global coalition working to punish Moscow.

In recent years, gold has been one of the top Russian exports after energy—reaching almost $19 billion, or about 5 percent of global gold exports, in 2020, according to the White House. The United States imported less than $200 million in gold from Russia in 2019, and under $1 million in 2020 and 2021.

Earlier on June 26, Russian missiles struck an area in Kyiv, killing at least one person, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said.

“The Russians hit Kyiv again. Missiles damaged an apartment building and a kindergarten. Russia should be designated a state sponsor of terrorism ASAP,” Andriy Yermak wrote on Twitter, adding that Ukraine “needs modern missile defense systems badly.”

Also June 26, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson seemed to make note of the lack of attention that’s being focused on Ukraine—especially amid decades-high inflation and gas prices.

CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Johnson a leading question about how the United States and the West could “combat Ukraine fatigue at a time when so many Western nations are struggling with real issues at home? And do you worry at all that the tying of the war in Ukraine with higher energy prices might cause people in the UK [and] in the United States to say, ‘You know what, it’s not worth it?’”

Johnson replied by saying that “it is” worth it to continue to provide support to Ukraine because it would be “absolutely catastrophic” if Russian President Vladimir Putin succeeded. The United States has provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine since the conflict started on Feb. 24.

Referencing the White House’s commitment of $46 billion to aid Ukraine, Johnson told the outlet that “I would argue that is a price worth paying.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was quoted by The Associated Press as saying that Western sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine are having “a profound impact,” adding that “even as [Russia] gets oil revenues with higher prices it’s unable to spend them because of the export controls.”

Moscow, he said, “can’t acquire what it needs to modernize its defense sector, to modernize its technology, to modernize its energy exploration, which means that over time each of these areas is going to go in decline.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.