Western sanctions have reversed '30 years of economic progress' in Russia, White House's Psaki says

• Western sanctions have reversed "30 years of economic progress" in Russia, Jen Psaki said Tuesday.
• The White House press secretary said the sanctions have degraded Russia's military and cut off access to technology.
• Sanctions have included removing access to the SWIFT global banking system, blocking trade, and freezing oligarchs' assets.

Western sanctions have wiped out "30 years of economic progress" in Russia in just a few weeks, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday.

Western countries and trade blocs imposed heavy financial sanctions on Russia after President Vladimir Putin sent troops to attack Ukraine in late February. The measures include banning transactions with Russia's central bank, cutting off some Russian banks' access to the SWIFT international-payments system, banning Russian oil imports into the US, and blocking the trade of luxury goods. 

The measures have helped send the ruble to a record low and triggered soaring inflation in Russia. 

"The unprecedented costs we've imposed with allies and partners have reversed 30 years of economic progress, something President Putin himself pushed for, and that has happened in less than a month," Psaki said at a press briefing Tuesday.

Russia holds around $640 billion in foreign reserves, which were targeted by Western sanctions so that the country couldn't use them to prop up its economy. Russia's finance minister told Interfax that this had frozen around $300 billion of reserves.

"He can't use these rainy day funds to support his war in Ukraine," Psaki said.

She added that inflation in Russia has been "rampant."

"The ruble is less than a penny," she said. "It's the worst-performing emerging market currency."

Nathanael Tilahun, an assistant professor and sanctions expert at Coventry University's Research Centre for Financial & Corporate Integrity, previously told Insider that the sanctions so far would "basically bring Russia's economy to its knees overnight, completely," and that over the next few months their effects "would trickle down to every single individual Russian."

The West has also targeted sanctions at some Russian individuals and has frozen the foreign-held assets of Putin, other Kremlin leaders, and several high-profile oligarchs. Psaki said that Europe had seized at least five yachts owned by Russian oligarchs.

"Our actions have hit hard at the things President Putin cares about the most: degrading his military, [the country's] access to cutting-edge technology, and [its] ability to project power and influence," Psaki said.

But some critics say the sanctions haven't gone far enough, in that they have yet to persuade Putin to call off the invasion. Exiled Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky told CNN that blocking all Putin's bankers and sanctioning every oligarch was the "only thing" that would stop Russia's continued assault on Ukraine.