Putin has a pot of gold. Republicans and Democrats want to take it away
CNN
The West is already crushing Russia's economy. Now a bipartisan group of lawmakers want to limit Vladimir Putin's access to Russia's mountain of gold.
A bipartisan bill introduced this week aims to ramp up the financial pressure another notch by making it harder for Moscow to use gold to prop up the crashing ruble. Existing sanctions have not directly targeted the Central Bank of Russia's roughly $130 billion in gold reserves.
"This would tighten the financial noose," Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine, told CNN in a phone interview.
Millions of Americans have taken to the skies, hit the road, fired up the barbecue grill and jumped into the pool this weekend to celebrate the start of summer 2024. Analysts are expecting the Memorial Day weekend to usher in yet another summer of strong consumer spending on travel and other leisure activities.