US ready to impose sweeping measures
Mr Harrell, who sits on the National Security Council, said the United States was prepared, immediately after an invasion of Ukraine, to impose "crippling financial costs on major Russian financial institutions as well as to impose a range of quite sweeping export controls that will degrade Russian industrial capacity over the mid and long term."
Commerce Department official Thea Kendler, who spoke to the export gathering on Friday, said "We are contemplating massive sanctions targeting key people and industries that were not on the table in 2014."
That year, Russia invaded and annexed Crimea from Ukraine.
Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden said he would consider personal sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin if he sent forces into Ukraine.
Mr Harrell said he hoped the hundreds of hours he and his colleagues had spent over the last couple of months developing measures would never see the light of day, but that they are prepared to impose the sweeping measures.
Financial sanctions to be felt immediately
The two-fold strategy includes financial sanctions against major Russian financial institutions "to trigger capital flight, to trigger inflation, to make the Russian central bank provide bailouts to its banks … so Putin feels costs on day one," Mr Harrell said.
Export control measures would be announced as part of the package but would probably not have the same immediate impacts, and instead "degrade Russia's ability to have industrial production in a couple of key sectors".
Mr Harrell did not detail the sectors, but other White House officials have mentioned aviation, maritime, robotics, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and defence.
A person familiar with the matter told Reuters the focus was on strategic sectors significant to Russian leadership.
Asked about Russia's lucrative oil and gas sector, the person said nothing was off the table.
In a follow-up comment, White House spokesperson Emily Horne also said no options had been eliminated.
Mr Harrell said he expected the European Union to join in the effort.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-29/us-threatens-russia-with-massive-sanctions-over-ukraine-crisis/100790222
