By Natasha Bertrand
The US is prepared to impose a range of harsh economic penalties on Russia should it move to invade Ukraine, starting with high-impact targets that would impose “severe and overwhelming costs on Russia’s economy,” Biden administration officials tell CNN.
The sanctions could have major impacts on Russian consumers, industrial operations and employment, the sources said, and would in some instances put Russia in the same restrictive group of countries for export control purposes as Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Syria.
The US and Russia are set to meet on Monday for high-stakes talks aimed at averting a war, as Russia has continued to amass troops near Ukraine’s borders. But the US officials said that if the talks fail and Russia does launch a new attack, the US will go straight for high-impact targets — unlike in 2014, when the US initially responded to Russia’s annexation of Crimea by…
