Biden announced new sanctions against Russia, but Tom Cotton says they aren’t even half measures and explained what needs to be done…

Biden finally gave his speech today on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, almost an hour and a half late, and announced new sanctions on both Russian banks and oligarchs:

BUSINESS INSIDER – Biden on Tuesday announced new, sweeping sanctions against Russia over its recent actions toward Ukraine.

“This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Biden said from the White House.

The president said the sanctions went much further than those imposed on Russia over its annexation of Crimea in 2014. Biden announced “full blocking sanctions” on two large Russian financial institutions — VEB and Russia’s military bank.

The sanctions also target Russia’s sovereign debt. “That means we’ve cut off Russia’s government from Western financing. It can no longer raise money from the West and can not trade in its new debt on our markets or European markets either,” Biden said.

Sanctions will also be imposed against Russian elites and their family members, Biden said.

I know Business Insider calls them ‘sweeping’ sanctions, but Senator Tom Cotton suggested these aren’t even half measures.

Cotton was on Fox News responding to the speech as soon as it was over and was asked if the sanctions Biden announced would be enough. Below is my transcript of his comments:

No, unfortunately it’s not enough. At least it’s a step in the right direction. I wouldn’t even call it a half measure though, it’s probably more like a quarter measure – sanctions on a couple of banks and some oligarchs.

I’ve been calling for months now for the kind of punishing sanctions that Joe Biden and western leaders keep promising but never revealing. Permanently cancelling the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, not just shuffling some bureaucratic paper around it’s review. Imposing sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas sectors, it’s mineral and mining sectors, the critical industries in that country. Clamping down on its financial industry and it’s access to the international banking systems. These are the kind of sanctions that are called for now, not these quarter measures that were just announced or that Berlin announced earlier today about the Nord Stream 2.

Unfortunately, the administration spent the first 24 hours debating on whether to even call this invasion an invasion. And the president took 80 minutes to come out for his own press conference, which doesn’t exactly project confidence, certainty and resolution to people watching him in Moscow. Much more is called for right now than what we just heard.

If I heard Biden right in his speech, he’s not even going to put all of his announced sanctions on immediately. He’s going to wait until Putin escalates more in Ukraine in order to escalate the sanctions.

But the single biggest thing that should be done, as Cotton said, is killing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline permanently. Germany announced today they were keeping it from being certified, but Putin knows they need the gas and will ultimately reverse course and turn on the pipeline. So I don’t think he’s really worried about these quarter measures, as Cotton called it. He’ll just keep going until he has Ukraine and everyone will acquiesce, just like they did with Crimea.


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