Before Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine last year, many of

the world's largest economies had already prepared a raft of sanctions against Russia.

Here's President Joe Biden on February 24, 2022, the day of the invasion.

For months we've been building a coalition of partners representing well more than half

the global economy.

These seven members of the European Union, including France, Germany, Italy, as well as

the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and many others to amplify the

joint impact of our response.

Those nations had hoped the threat of sanctions would be adequate persuasion to prevent Russia's

invasion, but of course that did not work, as noted, Biden gave this speech as Russian forces

were entering Ukraine.

So the President announced even harsher sanctions.

Today I'm authorizing additional strong sanctions and new limitations on what can be exported

to Russia.

This is going to impose severe cost on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time.

Biden claimed that even though new sanctions were needed, the ones already in place were

damaged in Russia's economy.

We've already seen the impact of our actions on Russia's currency and the rubble, which

early today hit its weakest level ever in history.

Russia's stock market plunged today.

Biden also said something else, that the sanctions weren't just a punitive action against

the current invasion of Ukraine.

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