Punishing Putin: How Biden could cut Russia off from world tech

If Russia further invades Ukraine, the Biden administration could deprive it of a vast swath of low- and high-tech US and foreign-made goods, from commercial electronics and computers to semiconductors and aircraft parts, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

President Joe Biden would achieve that by expanding the list of goods that require US licenses before suppliers can ship them to Russia, and his administration would then deny those licenses, the people said.

The measures, whose details have not previously been reported, are part of a suite of export control penalties that the United States has prepared to damage Russia's economy, targeting everything from lasers to telecoms equipment and maritime items.

They were not announced on Tuesday as part of a round of sanctions unveiled by Biden to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for recognizing two breakaway regions of Ukraine as independent and deploying troops into the regions to "keep the peace." read more

But a senior administration official said, "if Putin escalates further, we will escalate further, using both financial sanctions and export controls, which we've yet to unveil."

The official added: "Export controls are really potent because we're talking about critical technology inputs that Russia needs to diversify its economy."

The official added that the United States is "fully prepared with a very large number of countries across the world to implement those export control measures if the invasion proceeds."

The White House, and the Commerce Department, which oversees US export controls, did not respond to requests for comment on details of the potential restrictions.

The package, which was still being fine-tuned over the weekend and could change, could come even as some White House officials have pledged to spare the Russian consumer from the brunt of the penalties.

The goal of the export control measures "is really to degrade Russia's ability to have industrial production in a couple of key sectors," Peter Harrell, who sits on the White House's National Security Council, said in a speech last month.