President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to impose “high levels” of sanctions on Russia and tariffs on imports from there if the country did not reach a settlement to end its nearly three-year-old war against Ukraine.

US Justice Department says Gal Haimovich sent aircraft tech, some of it with missile applications, worth $2 million to Russian customers, violating export controls amid Ukraine war

WASHINGTON — The Departments of Justice, State and Treasury announced Wednesday a joint effort to target with sanctions and criminal charges what the Biden administration says are Russian government-sponsored attempts to manipulate U.S. public opinion ahead of the November election.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday called for the US and its allies to hand $300 billion in frozen Russian central bank funds to Ukraine, a step that would significantly escalate the Western economic war against Russia.

WASHINGTON – The Biden administration will impose "major sanctions" on Russia, the White House said Tuesday, in response to the death of Alexei Navalny, a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin who died in prison last week under mysterious circumstances.

Exxon Mobil on Monday said it has fully exited Russia, with the energy giant saying that President Vladimir Putin had expropriated its assets in the country and "unilaterally terminated" the company's Sakhalin-1 oil project.

German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that German security officials believe "highly effective explosive devices" were used to blow up the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea. 

A new pipeline to carry Norwegian gas via Denmark was opened in Poland on Tuesday in a move to strengthen Europe's energy security after Russia cut off Warsaw's supplies.

The EU is seeking mandatory cuts in electricity use during peak hours, and wants to funnel windfall revenues from energy companies to poorer firms and households.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden has made a final decision against designating Russia as a state sponsor of terror, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday.

Update (1015ET): It did not take long for the Kremlin to respond to the G-7 plan to impose price-caps on Russian oil, with Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak warning that Moscow will ban exports of oil and other petroleum products to countries that impose a cap on the price of Russian crude. Novak made the remarks to reporters in Moscow on Sept. 1, according to Russian state media Tass, which came as Western powers were preparing to meet on Sept. 2 to agree on a Russian oil price cap.

Western sanctions against Russia are the most ill-conceived and counterproductive policy in recent international history. Military aid to Ukraine is justified, but the economic war is ineffective against the regime in Moscow, and devastating for its unintended targets. World energy prices are rocketing, inflation is soaring, supply chains are chaotic and millions are being starved of gas, grain and fertiliser. Yet Vladimir Putin’s barbarity only escalates – as does his hold over his own people.

A top Kremlin official has warned the United States against seizing or freezing Russian assets abroad amid the war, adding that it should remember that Russia could reclaim the state of Alaska.

Bloomberg reported Wednesday that the US and its allies have discussed trying to cap the price of Russian oil around $40-$60 per barrel as the West wants to limit Russia’s profits without sending the price of oil even higher. Oil is currently hovering around $100 per barrel on the global market.

Federal agents have begun questioning U.S. technology companies on how their computer chips ended up in Russian military equipment recovered in Ukraine.

The U.S. Administration is considering imposing secondary sanctions on buyers of Russian oil as a means to deprive Putin of oil revenues and undermine Russia’s position as an energy export powerhouse in the long term, the New York Times reported on Thursday, quoting current and former U.S. officials.

Russia cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday and threatened to do the same to other countries, dramatically escalating its standoff with the West over the war in Ukraine. European leaders decried the move as “blackmail.”

In an interview on Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said some NATO member states want the war in Ukraine to last longer as a way to hurt Russia.

Western lunacy is on full display (again) as Russian athletes could reportedly be banned from playing at Wimbledon this summer.

U.S. natural gas prices surged to the highest level in more than 13 years Monday as Russia’s war on Ukraine causes a global energy crunch, and as forecasts called for cooler spring temperatures.