By Karen Freifeld

(Reuters) -The Biden administration plans to spare everyday Russians from the brunt of U.S. export controls if Russia invades Ukraine, https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-buildup-ukraine-border-includes-blood-wounded-us-officials-say-2022-01-28 and focus on targeting industrial sectors, a White House official said.

A top Commerce official stated in separate remarks that “key people” would also be subject to “massive sanction,” Friday’s speech.

These remarks narrow down the range of possible curbs on Russia’s imports. Russia was previously thought to be disrupting more widely, which could have a negative impact on consumer technologies such as smartphones and other industrial sectors.

In a speech on Thursday for the Massachusetts Export Center, White House national security officer Peter Harrell stated that while we can’t predict every move, the intention is to take measures that will reduce Russia’s industrial capacities and production capabilities over time. This was not the case with individual Russian consumers.

Harrell is a member of the National Security Council and stated that the United States was ready to place “crippling financial cost” on Russian banks as well as impose broad export restrictions which will reduce Russian industrial capability over the medium- to long term.

Thea Kendler of Commerce Department, spoke on Friday to the export gathering and stated, “We are thinking about massive sanctions that target key people or industries which were not in the plan for 2014.” The year that Russia invaded Crimea and annexed it from Ukraine was the year Russia did this.

Three days ago President Joe Biden said he would consider personal sanctions https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-seeks-protect-europes-energy-supplies-if-russia-invades-ukraine-2022-01-25 on Russian President Vladimir Putin if he sent forces into Ukraine.

Harrell expressed hope that the hundreds of hours spent in developing the measures over the last few months would not be seen the light of the day. However, he said that they are ready to implement the broad measures.

Harrell stated that the two-fold strategy involves financial sanctions on major Russian financial institutions, “to trigger capital flee, to trigger inflation, and to make Russia’s central bank bail out its banks… so Putin feels cost immediately.”

The package would include export control measures, but they would not likely have the same immediate effects and would instead “degrade Russia’s capability to have industrial production within a few key sectors”.

Harrell was unable to provide details on the specific sectors. However, other White House officials have spoken out about aviation, maritime and robotics as well as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, defense, and marine.

The person who was familiar with this matter said that Reuters’ focus is on the strategic sectors important to Russian leadership. The person who spoke on the matter said that Russia’s oil and gas industry was not off the table when he was asked about it.

Emily Horne from the White House responded to our comment by saying that there were no alternatives.

“We and our allies have a full range of high-impact sanctions and export controls ready to go, both immediately after a Russian invasion and in waves to follow,” Horne said.

Harrell indicated that he expected the European Union (EU) to participate in this effort. Based on discussions that I have had and frankly people far more knowledgeable than me, we feel quite certain we will be in a high level of alignment with Europe in the event Russia invades Ukraine.

According to sources, the U.S. may also apply rules to prevent foreign companies from sending items such as semiconductors manufactured with U.S. technology, to Russia. This is similar to the rule it used to limit the supply of chips to China’s Huawei. It considers this a threat.

A person with knowledge of the matter stated that U.S. officials had conversations on Thursday with Taiwan and South Korea. These countries are home to major producers of chip chips. They also have discussions with other southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand, who do some packaging.