White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that while the U.S. is wary of effects on global markets, sanctioning Russian oil and natural gas is “very much on the table.”
Media and political reaction to the “punishing” sanctions that the U.S. and its allies have ratcheted up against Russia has run the gamut, from wanting the administration to “do more,” to wondering if they’re doing too much. And some have pressed for sanctions on Russian energy, while also attacking Biden over rising gas prices.
On Wednesday morning’s edition of MSNBC’s Way Too Early, host Jonathan Lemire asked Psaki about that weapon in the sanctions arsenal, and while she carefully laid out the competing considerations, she said the measure is definitely not out of the question:
MR. LEMIRE: Yeah, certainly the you guys, the White House and allies across the West have unleashed a pummeling array of sanctions against Russia. But you still have a card to play in sort of energy and gas. Will there be moves there to sanction that key industry in Russia as well?MS. PSAKI: Well, we’re very open, I think you’ve you’ve seen, Jonathan, you cover this and follow this very, very closely.Almost every single day, there’s new sanctions and new steps that we’re taking and announcing with our Western partners or our countries in Europe, and we’re doing that
in lockstep, and in a unified way, which is very important to the president.What we also factor in, or what he looks at, and I think this is important for people to know, is how we can maximize the impact and the squeeze on President Putin and the financial sector. We’re already seeing that, you know, the ruble, their currency is plummeting. We’re seeing the stock market plummet. Their inflation is skyrocketing. But we want to minimize the impact on the global marketplace, and that includes the global oil marketplace, and the impact of energy prices for the American people.So that’s one of the factors that we really look at it. We’re considering it. It’s very much on the table, but we need to weigh what all of the impacts will be. We’re not trying to hurt ourselves. We’re trying to hurt President Putin and the Russian economy.
Watch above via MSNBC.