President Joe Biden warned his Russian counterpart of additional actions as he laid the groundwork for a summer summit with Vladimir Putin after rolling out new sanctions against Moscow for a long list of aggressive acts.
While condemning Russia’s attempts to undermine U.S. elections and cyberattacks against the U.S. government and companies, Biden said his hope was that the pair could have a stronger, strategic relationship focused on arms control and security.
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“The way forward is through thoughtful dialogue and the diplomatic process,” the president said during a Thursday afternoon address. But when pressed by reporters about his approach to Putin, the new American commander in chief issued a thinly veiled warning as his counterpart masses military forces along his border with Ukraine: “We can move, too.”
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Biden signed an expansive executive order earlier Thursday, levying sanctions against the Russian government, businesses, and citizens for a wide range of “harmful activities” against their U.S. counterparts and against dissidents and journalists, such as Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The president called the action “measured and proportionate.”
“If Russia continues to interfere with our democracy, I’m prepared to take further actions to respond. It is my responsibility as president of the United States to do so,” Biden said.
“The United States is not looking to kick off a cycle of escalation in conflict with Russia,” he added, citing the mutually beneficial extension of nuclear nonproliferation New START framework.
The main thrust of Thursday’s executive order was that it extended sovereign debt sanctions stopping U.S. financial institutions from lending non-ruble denominated funds to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation, and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, as well as taking part in their primary non-ruble denominated bond market. Previous sanctions were limited to ruble funds and bonds.
The Treasury Department also sanctioned 32 entities and individuals over Russia’s efforts to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The Treasury also named and shamed six technology companies it says worked with the Russian intelligence service’s cyberprogram. Another eight entities and individuals were sanctioned over Russia’s occupation of Crimea.
As part of Thursday’s order, the U.S. additionally expelled 10 Washington-based Russian diplomats, some of whom the administration says were spies.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to confirm Thursday that sanctions related to the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline were nixed at German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s request. Biden elaborated that he had been against the deal since prior to his inauguration, saying the matter remains in play.
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Biden spoke with this week Putin for the second time since he was sworn in, inviting the Russian strongman to meet him in Europe this summer to discuss how the two countries can have “stable and predictable” relations after former President Donald Trump.
“I was candid and respectful. The conversation was candid and respectful,” Biden said of their talk Thursday.
