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April 6 (UPI) -- In the wake of new sanctions against Russia, U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday said the intent of the sanctions was to stifle Russia's ability to grow its economy for years to come. Speaking at the North America's Building Trade Union legislative conference in Washington, D.C., Biden said Russia's attack on Ukraine includes major war crimes.
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"The steps we're already taken are predicted to shrink Russia's gross domestic product by double-digits this year alone," Biden said at the trade union event.
"Just in one year, our sanctions are likely to wipe out the last 15 years of Russia's economic gains and because we've cut Russia off from important technologies like semiconductors and encryption security and critical components of quantum technology that they need to compete in the 21st century," Biden said at that event.
Biden's speech to the building trades legislative conference included stark comments about civilian Ukrainian bodies found in Bucha, a town that had been occupied by the Russian military.
"Civilians executed in cold blood," Biden said. "Bodies dumped into mass graves."
Biden urged responsible nations to "come together to hold these perpetrators accountable."
The United States, in conjunction with the G7 and the European Union, announced new sanctions against Moscow on Wednesday -- which are results of attacks against civilians in Ukraine and target the adult daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The sanctions target Russian banks, Putin's grown daughters Katerina Tikhonova and Maria Vorontsova, the wife and daughter of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Maria Lavrova and Yekaterina Vinokurova, and members of the Russian Security Council.
"These individuals have enriched themselves at the expense of the Russian people," the White House said in a statement. "Some of them are responsible for providing the support necessary to underpin Putin's war on Ukraine.
"This action cuts them off from the U.S. financial system and freezes any assets they hold in the United States."
The new sanctions follow U.S. action earlier this week to "cut off Russia's frozen funds in the United States to make debt payments" and were also influenced by reports and images of Russian brutality against Ukrainian civilians in Bucha that emerged last weekend.
The measures are designed to reinforce each other to generate intensifying impact over time.
Wednesday's sanctions include full blocking on Sberbank, Russia's largest financial institution, and Russia's largest private bank, Alfa Bank.
According to the White House, the action freezes any of Sberbank's and Alfa Bank's assets touching the U.S. financial system. The new sanctions also prohibit people in the United States from doing business with them.
The White House statement Wednesday also said Biden will sign an executive order prohibiting new investment in the Russian Federation by Americans.
The new U.S. sanctions do not preclude payments on Russia's sovereign debt at this time, as long as Russia uses funds outside U.S. jurisdiction, according to the White House. But that leaves Russia the choice of draining available funds to pay the debt or defaulting on the debt.
