Biden said: “Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences.” The US President announced new measures against Russia that will “impose severe costs on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time.”
The new sanctions include export blocks on technology that would restrict Russia’s ability to advance its military and make advances in the aerospace sector.
The US has also sanctioned “corrupt billionaires” and their families who are connected to the Kremlin, alongside Russian banks.
However, the President refused to answer why he had not yet directly sanctioned the Russian President after Biden insisted that his threat to do so was “not a bluff.”
On Fox News, Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley slammed Biden for not hitting Putin hard enough and for not giving the US a “leadership moment”.
The Former Ambassador stated that “Putin is a thug, a tyrant, a killer, he’s a horrible individual.”
Of her time at the UN, she said: “We had no better friend at the United Nations than the Ukrainians and no bigger enemy than the Russians.
“So, to see this happen it’s infuriating and I think if you put that into what we saw from President Biden it was disappointing.
“I don’t want to be partisan during a time when we could possibly have a world war.
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“Committed to enacting the strongest possible sanctions and export controls to cripple Russia’s ability to make war, punish its barbarity and relegate the Putin regime to the status of an international pariah.”
Nikki Haley added that Biden “needed to do harsh sanctions, he needed to get the Europeans to go and make sure that we pulled Russia out of the Swift and stopped all international banking.
“He needed to sanction all of the energy companies because that’s the one industry that kicks Putin where he really needs to be hit.”
On Twitter Ms Haley said: “This White House just doesn’t get it. If we’re not hitting Putin where it hurts, we’re doing nothing.”
