Not quite sure why this wasn’t one of the first sanctions, but, at least Brandon is playing catchup quickly
U.S. joins EU and U.K. in sanctioning Putin directly
The U.S. imposed sanctions Friday on Russian President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and other members of Russia’s Security Council.
Why it matters: It is extremely rare for the U.S. to sanction a sitting world leader, and the Kremlin had previously said it would consider sanctions on Putin himself to be a de facto severing of relations between the U.S. and Russia.
- The move reflects Moscow’s new pariah status but is mostly symbolic, as it’s unclear what assets Putin and Lavrov actually hold in the West after years of escalating sanctions against Russia.
- Putin in particular is believed to rely on his inner circle of Russian oligarchs to stash his vast wealth abroad.
Driving the news: The sanctions prohibit Putin and Lavrov from traveling to the U.S. and also target Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov.
And therein lies one of the issues, what, exactly, will this mean to Putin? What holdings does he have in the U.S. and Europe, as the EU sanctions on him do the same as the U.S. ones.
And, of course, as expected, Russia vetoed the UN Security council resolution.
Double of course, you wouldn’t know any of this stuff if you tuned into the White House twitter feed, which doesn’t mention Ukraine at all today. It’s primarily about Brandon nomination Judge Jackson. The only mention at Whitehouse.gov is on Brandon’s call with Ukranian president Zelenskyy. Which is also the only thing mentioned in relation to Ukraine on the POTUS twitter account.
Holy crap! Is Biden actually going home to Delaware this afternoon? His schedule says so. Imagine Trump bolting D.C. while war rages in Ukraine involving Russia https://t.co/mnhZlRHCTO #BidenIsADisgrace pic.twitter.com/v8iAADNY36
— William Teach2 ??????? #refuseresist (@WTeach2) February 25, 2022
Now, he’s supposedly going to attend a funeral for his daughter-in-law’s mother, and work on his SOTU. Pretty bad optics to be out of Washington all weekend, though, and you know if Trump were president the media and Democrats would be wondering why he couldn’t go to the funeral then come back to D.C. Different rules, you know. And, really, this whole war thing is just so inconvenient for Joe.
Joe Biden in 2019: "Imagine what can happen in Ukraine" if Trump is reelected. pic.twitter.com/gLbB2LWI0U
— America Rising (@AmericaRising) February 25, 2022