White House officials defended President Joe Biden’s concession that the sanctions he slapped on Moscow would not have stopped Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine.
Biden “clearly” signaled the specific economic costs that would be exacted on Russia if Putin attacked Ukraine, according to deputy national security adviser and Deputy National Economic Council Director Daleep Singh.
WHITE HOUSE PINS INFLATION BLAME ON RUSSIA-UKRAINE CRISIS
“Look, we can’t dictate Putin’s actions,” he told reporters Thursday. “What we can do is what’s within our control and to make sure this is going to be a strategic failure for Russia.”
Singh was also pushed on Biden’s suggestion that Russia will not face the sanctions’ ramifications for a month.
“Over the course of the next month, what you can expect is that we’ll see an intensifying negative feedback loop in Russian markets,” he said. “What you can see is that, over time, this is going to atrophy Russia’s capacity to diversify outside of just oil and gas and to modernize the strategic sector that Putin himself has said he wants to develop.”
For Singh, the reason to stagger sanctions hinged on Putin thinking that Biden had closed the door to diplomacy. He contended that may have provided Putin with a justification to invade.
“Secondly, he could look at it as a sunk cost,” he said. “In other words, President Putin could think, ‘I’ve already paid the price. Why don’t I actually take what I paid for, which is Ukraine’s freedom?'”
“The sanctions measures we imposed today, I think, without question were the most consequential ever levied on Russia and, arguably, the most consequential ever levied in history if you look at the aggregate financial impact on Russia,” he added.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki used the same approach when asked a follow-up question about the rationale.
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“We do see them having a deterrent impact,” she said. “That doesn’t mean they’re 100% foolproof.”
“It was his decision to go to war,” she continued. “It’s our choice to make him pay a price.”
