JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin took multiple shots at the West on the opening day of an economic summit in South Africa, using a prerecorded speech that was aired on giant screens Tuesday to rail at what he called “illegitimate sanctions” on his country and threatening to cut off Ukraine’s grain exports permanently.

Putin, the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant related to the war in Ukraine, did not travel to Johannesburg for the summit of the BRICS group of emerging economies. Instead, he plans to participate remotely in the three-day meeting of the bloc that encompasses Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

His 17-minute speech recorded in advance centered on the war in Ukraine and Russia’s relationship with the West even though South African officials had said East-West frictions should not dominate the first in-person BRICS summit since before the COVID-19 pandemic and hoped to guide the conversation away from the deteriorating geopolitical climate.

Sitting at a desk with a white notebook in front of him and a Russian flag behind, Putin said a wartime deal to facilitate Ukrainian grain shipments that is critical for the world’s food supply would not resume until his conditions – the easing of restrictions on Russian food and agricultural products – are met.

The West’s attempts to punish and isolate Russia financially for sending troops into Ukraine are an “illegitimate sanctions practice and illegal freezing of assets of sovereign states, which essentially amounts to them trampling upon all the basic norms and rules of free trade,” the Russian leader asserted.

Moscow pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative last month and stepped up drone and missile attacks on the city of Odesa in southern Ukraine, home to one of the ports the controlled passage agreement covered.

The initiative was credited with helping reduce soaring prices of wheat, vegetable oil and other global food commodities. Putin maintained that even with Russian exports of grain and fertilizer being “deliberately obstructed,” his country has “the capacity to replace Ukraine in grain, both commercially and in free aid to needy countries,” according to an official translation of his speech at the summit.

The United States and other Western nations have not directly targeted Russian agricultural exports, but moves to restrict Russia’s access to international financial payment systems under some sanctions have made it difficult for the country to get food, fertilizer and other products to market.

“With these facts in mind, since July 18 we have refused to extend the so-called deal,” Putin said. “We will be ready to get back to it, but only if all the obligations to the Russian side are truly fulfilled.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping also brought an air of confrontation to the Johannesburg summit, saying in a speech read on his behalf by a Chinese government minister minutes after Putin’s address that “some country, obsessed with maintaining its hegemony, has gone out of its way to cripple the emerging markets and developing countries.”

“Whoever is developing fast becomes its target of containment. Whoever is catching up, becomes its target of obstructions,” Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said while delivering Xi’s speech.

It was a clear reference to the United States and the growing economic friction between the U.S. and China.

Xi is in South Africa for the summit and met with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier Tuesday. He didn’t attend the opening-day business forum where the other three BRICS leaders gave their addresses in person and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov represented his country. No reason was given for the Chinese leader’s absence.

However, Xi, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ramaphosa were all expected to meet over dinner at a luxury estate in suburban Johannesburg. Putin also planned to take part virtually, officials said.

The leaders were expected to discuss the top agenda point for the three-day summit, a possible expansion of BRICS. They are scheduled to reconvene for the summit’s main day of talks on Wednesday.

The five BRICS countries are already home to 40% of the world’s population and responsible for more than 30% of global economic output, and more than 20 nations have applied to join, according to South African officials, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi planned to attend the summit.

The five current member countries will have to agree on the criteria for new members before any countries are admitted, but a bigger BRICS is seen as a policy favored by China and Russia amid those deteriorating relations with the West.

Brazil, Russia, India and China formed the bloc in 2009. South Africa was added in 2010.

“I am glad to note that over 20 countries are knocking on the door of BRICS. China hopes to see more joining the BRICS cooperation mechanism,” Wang said while giving Xi’s speech.

Overall, around 1,200 delegates from the five BRICS nations and dozens of other developing countries are in South Africa’s biggest city, and more than 40 heads of state were expected to take part in some of the summit meetings, according to Ramaphosa.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres also was expected to attend.

While summit host South Africa has pushed back at characterizations that BRICS is taking more of an anti-West turn under Russian and Chinese influence, it’s clearly a forum for growing discontent in the developing world with global institutions.

That unhappiness has been directed at bodies seen as Western-led, including the U.N., the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which many countries in the Global South feel do not serve their interests.

While in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, earlier Tuesday for his meeting with Xi, Ramaphosa said he was seeking “Chinese support for South Africa and Africa’s call for the reform of global governance institutions, notably the United Nations Security Council.”

Africa and South America have no permanent representatives on the Security Council despite being home to nearly 2 billion people.

The U.S. and EU will be closely monitoring events in Johannesburg, with the long list of countries lining up to join BRICS suggesting that the bloc’s calls for a reorganization of the global governance structure might be hitting home with many.

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BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union countries on Wednesday agreed on a new package of sanctions against Russia for its war against Ukraine aimed at countering sanctions circumvention through third countries and businesses.

The EU had previously imposed 10 rounds of sanctions on Russia since President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Banks, companies and markets have been hit — even parts of the sensitive energy sector. More than 1,000 officials are subject to asset freezes and travel bans.

Much work in the latest batch of sanctions has involved closing loopholes so that goods vital to Putin’s war effort don’t get through via nations that trade with the EU and have maintained a business-as-usual relationship with Moscow.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the EU’s executive arm, said the new package will “deal a further blow to Putin’s war machine with tightened export restrictions, targeting entities supporting the Kremlin.”

“Our anti-circumvention tool will prevent Russia from getting its hands on sanctioned goods,” she added.

It is the first time that plans have been announced to target trade via other countries, apart from sanctions against Iranians alleged to be supplying drones to Russia.

It also prohibits the transit via Russia of products and technologies which might help boost its defense and security sector.

Under the latest package, if the EU sees for example that exports of a certain computer chip increase five-fold to one nation, and then sees that such exports from the country increase by about the same amount to Russia, the bloc would be able to take tougher action to end the practice.

The new package specifically allows the implementation of measures restricting the sale, or export of sensitive dual-use goods and technology to third countries who could then transfer them to Russia. Under the new rules, the EU could exert much more pressure to end the practice than before.

“It does give a big stick with which the EU can say: ‘please don’t do it,’ and then, if it continues we go to restrictive measures,” said an official from an EU nation on condition of anonymity because the rules had yet to be published in the EU’s official journal.

The rules cannot be excessively rigid, since the EU does not want to immediately alienate nations.

“We need to look for a balance with nations. When we address their bad behavior, we have to make sure we don’t immediately drive them into the arms of Putin,” the official said.

The new package will also target 71 extra persons and 33 entities in relation with the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.

Also included is the prohibition to access to ports in the EU by vessels engaged in ship-to-ship transfers when there is a suspicion that a boat is not respecting the ban on importing seaborne Russian crude oil and petroleum products into the bloc.

In addition, the package extends the suspension of the broadcasting licenses in the EU of five Russian media outlets under state control.

Past sanctions have been agreed on in just months — extremely quickly for the EU. But new measures are becoming increasingly hard to endorse as they inflict damage on the economic and political interests of some member countries even as they aim for the Kremlin.

Hungary, for instance, had said earlier this week it wouldn’t allow EU measures targeting Russian state nuclear energy company Rosatom, insisting on the importance of nuclear energy for Europe’s security and environmental goals.

Hungary signed new agreements in April to ensure its continued access to Russian energy, a sign of the country’s continuing diplomatic and trade ties with Moscow that have confounded some European leaders amid the war in Ukraine.

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BRUSSELS (AP) — As war rages on in Ukraine, President Joe Biden will huddle with key allies in Brussels and Warsaw this week to talk through plans for imposing punishing new sanctions on Russia and dealing with an extraordinary humanitarian crisis, while developing a consensus on how they would respond if Russia were to launch a cyber, chemical or even nuclear attack.

Biden arrived in Brussels on Wednesday for a four-day trip that will test his ability to navigate Europe’s worst crisis since World War II ended in 1945. There are fears that Russia could use chemical or nuclear weapons as its invasion becomes bogged down in the face of logistical problems and fierce Ukrainian resistance.

“I think it’s a real threat,” Biden said of the possibility of Russia deploying chemical weapons. He spoke during a brief exchange with reporters at the White House before his departure.

Humanitarian challenges are growing as well. Millions of refugees have fled the fighting, mostly by crossing the border into Poland, and the war has jeopardized Ukraine’s wheat and barley harvests, raising the possibility of rising hunger in impoverished areas around the globe.

As Biden made his way to Brussels, his top diplomat announced he had made a formal determination that Russian troops have committed war crimes in Ukraine.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, traveling with Biden, said in a statement the assessment was made on a “careful review” of public and intelligence sources since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine a month ago. He said the U.S. would share that information with allies, partners and international institutions tasked with investigating allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“We’ve seen numerous credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities. Russia’s forces have destroyed apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, critical infrastructure, civilian vehicles, shopping centers and ambulances, leaving thousands of innocent civilians killed or wounded,” Blinken said.

Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, said the president would coordinate with allies on military assistance for Ukraine and new sanctions on Russia during meetings Thursday with NATO officials, Group of Seven leaders and European Union allies.

At NATO, Biden and fellow leaders will “set out a longer term game plan” for what forces and capabilities are going to be required for the alliance’s eastern flank countries, Sullivan said. Leaders of several Eastern European NATO members have pressed for a greater U.S. and NATO presence in their backyards in the aftermath of the Ukraine invasion.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said four new battlegroups, which usually number between 1,000 and 1,500 troops, are being temporarily set up in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. A permanent force posture is expected to be formally announced at the next NATO summit in Madrid in June, Sullivan said.

European Union nations on Wednesday also signed off on another 500 million euros in military aid for Ukraine. EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell called the doubling of the EU’s military aid since the Feb. 24 beginning of the war “another sign of the EU’s support to the Ukrainian armed forces to defend their territory and their population.”

At the meeting of the Group of Seven, leaders from the bloc of wealthy, industrialized nations are expected to unveil a new initiative to coordinate sanctions enforcement and unveil additional sanctions against Russian officials.

One new sanctions option that Biden is looking at is to target hundreds of members of the Russian State Duma, the lower house of parliament, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the potential move. The official added that a final decision hasn’t been made and that the new sanctions would be rolled out in coordination with Western allies.

Sullivan said additional Russian oligarchs and political figures would be among those designated in the sanctions unveiled Thursday.

Earlier this week, Biden warned that Russia could be planning cyberattacks that would affect U.S. companies. The U.S. president also spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday to warn him against backing Russia with military or financial assistance.

U.S. concerns about China are expected to be on the agenda when Biden attends a meeting of the European Council, where he will also discuss the worsening refugee and humanitarian crises that have developed over the past month. The European Union is scheduled to hold a summit with China on April 1.

Central to the president’s agenda during his time in Europe is making certain that the U.S. and its allies remain on the same page.

“What we would like to hear is that the resolve and unity that we’ve seen for the past month will endure for as long as it takes,” Sullivan told reporters on Air Force One en route to Brussels.

Sullivan also said the United States is looking for ways to “surge” supplies of liquified natural gas to Europe to help make up for supply disruptions. The European Union imports nearly all of the natural gas needed to generate electricity, heat homes and supply industry, with Russia supplying nearly half of EU gas and a quarter of its oil.

Before the trip, Sullivan said Putin’s references to nuclear weapons at the beginning of the conflict are “something that we do have to be concerned about,” adding that Biden would be talking with allies about “potential responses” if the Russian leader takes that step.

Sullivan’s description of Biden’s trip was another sign that the crisis is entering a new and uncertain phase.

After the initial invasion failed to topple Ukraine’s government, the war has become a grinding endeavor for Putin, who is relying on airstrikes and artillery that are devastating civilian communities. Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia have not produced a cease-fire or a path to ending the conflict, and the U.S. continues to rush weapons like anti-tank missiles to Ukrainian forces.

“This is one of those decisive moments for an American leader that defines their legacy internationally,” said Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian at New York University.

Americans also are increasingly viewing the crisis as one that will require economic sacrifice.

A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds a majority of Americans say they’re willing to accept damage to the economy if it helps to stop Putin’s invasion. Forty percent now say the U.S. should have a “major role,” up from 26% in an AP-NORC poll conducted just before the invasion began.

Forty-six percent say the U.S. should have a “minor role.” The percentage who think the U.S. shouldn’t be involved at all ticked down from 20% to 13%.

Biden departed for Europe as public health officials took note of a global uptick in COVID-19 cases. Confirmed cases of the virus had been falling steadily worldwide since January but rose again last week, due to the more infectious omicron variant and the suspension of COVID protocols in numerous countries in Europe, North America and elsewhere, the World Health Organization reported on Tuesday.

Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, announced on Tuesday that she would not travel with Biden after testing positive for the virus for the second time in five months. Biden was last tested on Tuesday, according to the White House. Psaki said she had two “socially distanced meetings” with Biden on Monday and that he is not considered a “close contact” under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

Biden travels to Warsaw on Friday to meet Polish officials to discuss the enormous humanitarian strain caused by the Ukrainian refugee crisis. Biden is scheduled to meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda on Saturday.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden hit back Thursday against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, unleashing robust new sanctions, ordering the deployment of thousands of additional troops to NATO ally Germany and declaring that America would stand up to Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

He also acknowledged that the invasion — and efforts to thwart Putin — will have a cost for Americans. But he sought to reassure that the economic pain that may come with rising energy prices will be short lived in the U.S.

As for the Russian president, Biden said, “He’s going to test the resolve of the West to see if we stay together. And we will.”

Targeting Russia’s financial system, Biden said, the United States will block assets of large Russian banks, i mpose export controls aimed at the nation’s high-tech needs and sanction its business oligarchs.

The president said the U.S. also will be deploying additional forces to Germany to bolster NATO after the invasion of Ukraine, which is not a member of the defense organization. Some 7,000 additional U.S. troops will be sent.

But some U.S. lawmakers—and Ukrainian officials—called on Biden to do more.

“There is more that we can and should do,” said Sen Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, pointing to the possibility of removing Russian banks from the SWIFT international banking system and sanctioning Putin personally. “Congress and the Biden administration must not shy away from any options.”

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell expressed support Thursday for Biden’s latest moves but also urged Biden to apply maximum pressure on Putin.

“We’re all together at this point and we need to be together about what should be done,” McConnell said. “But I have some advice: Ratchet the sanctions all the way up. Don’t hold any back.”

Biden declared that Putin, who has referred to the collapse of the Soviet Union as the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the past century, is looking beyond Ukraine.

“He has much larger ambitions,” Biden said. “He wants to, in fact, reestablish the former Soviet Union. That’s what this is about.”

The penalties announced Thursday fall in line with the White House’s insistence that it would hit Russia’s financial system and Putin’s inner circle, while also imposing export controls that would aim to starve Russia’s industries and military of U.S. semiconductors and other high-tech products.

“Putin is the aggressor,” Biden said. “Putin chose this war, and now he and his country will bear the consequences.”

But Biden, for now, held off imposing some of the most severe potential sanctions, including cutting Russia out of the SWIFT payment system, which allows for the transfers of money from bank to bank around the globe.

Biden announced the sanctions at the White House while Ukraine’s government reported mounting casualties inflicted by Russian forces attacking from the east, north and south.

Oil and natural prices have already surged over concerns that Russia — an energy production behemoth — will slow the flow of oil and natural gas to Europe. Biden, however, acknowledged the sanctions are “going to take time” to have their effect on the Russian economy.

He also acknowledged that the invasion — and efforts to thwart Putin–will have a cost for Americans. But he sought to reassure that the economic pain that may come with rising energy prices will be short lived for them.

Biden added that after Russia’s “brutal assault” against Ukraine it would be a mistake for Putin’s actions to go unanswered. He said if they did, “the consequences for America would be much worse.”

“America stands up to bullies, we stand up for freedom,” Biden said. “This is who we are.”

Biden spoke hours after holding a virtual meeting with the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Italy and Japan. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also joined the meeting.

The president also met with his national security team in the White House Situation Room as he looked to flesh out U.S. moves in the rapidly escalating crisis.

While Biden described the sanctions as severe, Ukrainian officials urged the U.S. and West to go further and cut the Russians from the SWIFT financial system.

“We demand the disconnection of Russia from SWIFT, the introduction of a no-fly zone over Ukraine and other effective steps to stop the aggressor,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a tweet.

The Biden administration, however, has shown some reluctance to cut Russia from SWIFT, at least immediately, because of concerns the move could also have enormous ramifications for Europe and other Western economies. Biden, answering questions from reporters, appeared to push a decision on SWIFT to European allies.

“It is always an option but right now that’s not the position that the rest of Europe wishes to take,” Biden said. He also contended that the financial sanctions he announced would be more damaging to Russia.

The Belgium-headquartered system allows for tens of millions of transactions daily among banks, financial exchanges and other institutions. The U.S. notably has previously blocked Iran from the system because of its nuclear program.

Officials in Europe have noted that the loss of SWIFT access by Russia could be a drag on the broader global economy. Russia has also equated a SWIFT ban to a declaration of war. And because the system cements the importance of the U.S. dollar in global finance, outright bans also carry the risk of pushing countries to use alternatives through the Chinese government or blockchain-based technologies.

Brian Frey, a former Justice Department prosecutor during the Trump administration said while SWIFT is the primary messaging system for financial payments, “there are alternatives to the system” and cutting Russia off would create a “splashback and immediate problems for the international community.”

The sanctions include targeting Russia’s two largest banks, Sberbank and VTB Bank. The U.S. Treasury Department says the sanctions overall “target nearly 80 percent of all banking assets in Russia and will have a deep and long-lasting effect on the Russian economy and financial system.”

Individuals close to Putin were also targeted in the latest sanctions. They include former chief of staff Sergei Ivanov; Andrey Patrushev, a Putin ally who has held high-ranking positions at the state-owned Gazprom Neft, and former Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, chairman of the management board of the oil company Rosneft.

Treasury also announced sanctions against Belarusian banks, the country’s defense industry and security officials over support for Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Biden said the export control measures he ordered would “impose severe cost on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time.” The measures will restrict Russia access to semiconductors, computers, telecommunications, information security equipment, lasers and sensors.

“We’re going to impair their ability to compete in a high tech 21st century economy,” Biden said.

Meanwhile, Russia’s second-ranking diplomat in Washington was expelled in retaliation for the Russian expulsion of the No. 2 U.S. diplomat in Moscow earlier this month, a senior State Department official said Thursday.

The expulsion was unrelated to the invasion and is part of a long-running dispute between Washington and Moscow over embassy staffing. However, it comes as tensions between the two capitals have hit a post-Cold War high.

The official said the State Department had informed the Russian Embassy on Wednesday that it was expelling Minister Counselor Sergey Trepelkov, who is currently the No. 2 at the mission under Ambassador Anatoly Antonov. Russia expelled U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission Bart Gorman from Moscow in mid-February.

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