President Joe Biden said punishing sanctions from the United States targeting Russia’s economy and top officials were never believed to be an effective deterrent to Russia’s assault on Ukraine.
The White House promised to impose “severe and swift” sanctions on Russia if it attacked Ukraine, and the U.S. began imposing new financial penalties on the Russian financial system, elites close to President Vladimir Putin, and a controversial Russian-backed gas pipeline this week.
Biden defended the financial threats after the Russian leader escalated the offensive Thursday, making it clear that any deterrent effect had failed.
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“No one expected the sanctions to prevent anything from happening,” Biden said at the White House on Thursday. “This could take time, and we have to show resolve so he knows what’s coming, and so the people of Russian know what he’s brought on them. That’s what this is all about.”
He promised to inflict new economic harm on Putin that “will limit Russia’s ability to do business in dollars, euros, pounds, and yen and to be part of the global economy. We’re going to stop the ability to finance and grow the Russian military. We’re going to impair their ability to compete in a high-tech 21st-century economy.”
Putin promised overnight to “demilitarize” and “de-Nazify” Ukraine in a speech announcing the military assault after weeks of diplomatic entreaties by the U.S. and its allies.
The president maintained that economic warfare was never a path to halting Putin, but would continue to inflict serious harm.
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“I didn’t say sanctions couldn’t stop him,” Biden said. “The threat of the sanctions and imposing the sanctions and seeing the effect of the sanctions are two different things. They are two different things. And we’re now going to, he’s going to begin to see the effect of the sanctions.”
