Citing two former US officials informed of the events, Politico claimed on Monday that President Joe Biden has dismissed this year three plans to place more sanctions on Russia, increasing some officials’ frustration with his Russia policy.
According to the report, Biden has turned down three proposals to impose more sanctions on Russia his National Security Council’s suggested, arguing that the measures were “not tough enough.”
The magazine said some US foreign policy officials deem Biden’s overall approach to Russia as “too soft and too cautious,” adding ironically that the US President maybe should have sent the package back a fourth time given the latest maneuvers by Moscow.
US State Secretary Antony Blinken admitted last week that Washington’s analysts “don’t have clarity into Moscow’s intention” after previously voicing concern that Russia may be considering invading Ukraine, but later raised its concerns to its EU allies.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed those rumors as a baseless stoking of tensions, stressing that Russia doesn’t pose a threat to anyone.
Senior US officials are now warning that Russian president Putin may be trying to make NATO look weak and to inject chaos into the region by taking advantage of a growing dispute between Belarus and its European neighbors.
Blinken pointed to his Polish coleague Zbigniew that Belarus has been using the refugee crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border to distract from Russia’s activities on the border with Ukraine, but the report about the supposed buildup of Russian troops was rejected by Aleksey Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.
Washington imposed its sanctions on Russia in 2014 after the referendum vote after which Crimea left Ukraine and joined Russia, and were followed by more restrictions over the alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
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