G-7 To Ban Russian Gold Imports

(June 26th, 2022 - Matt Viser, Loveday Morris, Rick Noack)

TELFS, Austria — President Biden and several of his counterparts in the Group of Seven nations on Sunday announced a ban on new imports of Russian gold — and appeared to be moving toward consensus on a price cap on Russian gas — to further isolate the country from financial markets and punish President Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine.

The ban on gold imports, which could amount to a penalty of tens of billions of dollars, appeared to be the primary new economic sanction targeting Russia to come out of the summit. Administration officials declined to comment on whether other punitive steps would be taken.

“The United States has imposed unprecedented costs on Putin to deny him the revenue he needs to fund his war against Ukraine,” Biden tweeted Sunday morning, noting that gold is “a major export that rakes in tens of billions of dollars for Russia.”

Biden and other leaders of industrialized nations began their meetings in southern Germany on Sunday for a summit set to be dominated by discussions about the fallout from the war in Ukraine.

Biden, who arrived late Saturday night, attended Mass with a priest from the U.S. Army before starting his day with a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to discuss the war.

The two leaders made small talk as Biden, silhouetted by the Alps, quipped that he used to ski a lot but had not done so in some time. “It’s beautiful,” he remarked.

The conversation then turned more serious, with Biden thanking Scholz for Germany’s resolve and his ability to keep the alliance united. “We have to stay together. Because Putin has been counting on from the beginning that somehow NATO and the G-7 would splinter,” Biden said. “But we haven’t, and we’re not going to.”

Flags of the United Kingdom, United States and the European Union fly on the first day of the G-7 summit in Elmau, Germany. (Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz/Bloomberg News)

In the afternoon, the summit’s leaders announced a new global infrastructure investment program, with a goal of mobilizing $600 billion in public and private investments by 2027. The spending aims — with the United States pledging $200 billion — would go toward improving health, communications and energy infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries. It aims to help counter ambitious spending around the world by China, which has invested heavily in Africa and Asia through its Belt and Road Initiative.