ITS HAPPENING!
Posted on 02/24/2022 8:48:17 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The U.S. and its allies will impose severe new economic sanctions on Russia Thursday after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine — but a major sector of Russia's economy will be exempt from the punishing measures.
Politico first reported that the major government-owned Russian energy corporation Rosneft is not expected to be targeted in the new sanctions package. The Biden administration is reportedly concerned about global energy markets, as the price of crude oil reached its highest level since 2014 on Thursday because of Russia's war in Ukraine.
One senior administration official told Politico "no option is off the table," but cautioned "starting out with energy could actually benefit Putin and pad his pockets. Given high oil and gas prices, cutting off Russian oil and gas will drive prices up to Putin’s benefit. And as we have said repeatedly on the record, on background [and] off the record, our sanctions are designed to harm Russia’s economy, not ours.”
President Joe Biden addressed the nation Thursday afternoon and announced the next round of sanctions against Russia, following actions the U.S. government took on Tuesday to target Russian financial institutions and members of the country's elite.
The president said new sanctions will target more Russian elites, top banks, and technology exports and will impose a "severe cost" to the Russian economy, "both immediately and over time."
“We have purposely designed these sanctions to maximize a long-term impact on Russia and to minimize impact on the United States and our allies," Biden said.
But he added that the sanctions package is "specifically designed to allow energy payments to continue" and said his administration was "closely monitoring energy supplies for any disruption." The president promised to release additional barrels of oil from U.S. reserves to head off surging energy prices.
Early Thursday, Putin sent troops into Ukraine from the north, east, and south and began attacking Ukrainian cities with airstrikes and precision-guided cruise missiles. A senior defense official told reporters that Russia plans to "decapitate" the Ukrainian government and install a puppet regime in Ukraine's capital of Kyiv, Politico reported.
Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with G-7 officials Thursday morning to negotiate the sanctions package.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine was condemned by U.S. lawmakers of both parties, who supported the president's use of sanctions against Russia.
“It is important Congress unite to punish and crush Putin and his cronies,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) tweeted. He said there is bipartisan support for sending emergency aid to the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian military. He also called for a "task force to aggressively pursue Putin and his inner circle regarding the extravagant lifestyle they have become accustomed to after stealing Russia blind."
"If we do not treat Putin and his cronies as the war criminals they are, we will be making a huge mistake and sending the wrong message to other bad actors around the world," Graham said.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said in a statement that Russia's "unprovoked attack" on Ukraine "has brought into sharp focus the need to expel the current Kremlin leadership from the international community."
But others called on Biden to go further. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said Biden "must act now to hit Vladimir Putin where it hurts, beginning with Russia's energy sector."
"The Biden administration should sanction Russian energy production to a halt, and help arm the Ukrainians to defend themselves. At the same time, the White House should reopen American energy production in full," said Hawley. "This is the time to show Russia and the world that America will not reward aggression and it will not be dependent on its enemies."
Not an option to us with Biden cancelling / blocking all of those oil and gas permits. We would have energy sources to replace Russia’s market share. Now we don’t.
Biden’s policies have enriched Russia, weakened the United States and our allies, and taken options off the table to counter their influence.
Biden has us over a barrel.
What a jerk.
BiXiden and his Marxist puppet masters are just not serious about sanctions.
We don’t have any leverage to do anything including saving the hapless eurodingbats thanks to President Retard ruining our energy production before this ever took place 🤪
As Biden said way back during the campaign - he would defer to our allies and do everything by consensus with them. So he’s the dog getting wagged….mostly by Germany. He’s not doing what’s best for America and he’s not leading internationally, he’s going along with Europe.
Basically, he speaks arrogantly and belligerently, but when it comes to action he just takes a big dump.
The price of crude was already very high before the invasion. The war had very little to do with the price. It was the Biden policies that drove up the price.
Well, duh:
We’re importing Russian oil.
Yep. You can't just flip a switch and turn on oil production, it doesn't work that way. Biden and his goons have spent the last year doing everything they could to sabotage U.S. oil production now suddenly they want it going again.
of course not... we’re STILL buying oil from them!!!
Of course not, they’ll just sanction our access to energy.
They should target Belarus and cut off the head of it’s government.
Exactly, that's the low-hanging fruit.
So, Putin was right and the years of gaslighting was for the purpose to hinder the Russian development?
For all the talk of oligarchy and “gas station” the West surely likes to have Russia in such capacity.
Sberbank was telling retail customers on Russian social media today that sanctions won’t be a disruption for them.
I am near sure it is because we dont import energy from Russia, surely? /s
How did we go from being literally self-sufficient to importing our energy needs in just one year? And to think that for years, I had been telling myself it would take decades to fix the sh*t that was broken and fraked up under the ObamaIdiot tenure.........
“but a major sector of Russia’s economy will be exempt from the punishing measures.”
so what’s left? russian nesting dolls and fourth rate russian military accessories sold in army/navy surplus stores?
The fact that Russia is receiving hard currency at top dollar for their oil and gas which flows uninterrupted to NATO countries and remains able to participate in SWIFT banking underscores the the fact that these “sanctions” are not credible. The flow of Russian oil and gas and the prompt payment via SWIFT is ludicrous policy if you really consider Russia a dastardly nation waging an unjust war of aggression. Face it. Ukraine, like Taiwan in the near future and Tibet in the past, is essentially on its own.
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