During this week’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Night in America,” Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) called on President Joe Biden to show “strength” when it comes to dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Lankford said the United States needs to be “very, very clear” in how it would sanction Russia.
“Obviously, we need to be able to make it very, very clear in advance not just that there will be sanctions but what the sanctions will be,” Lankford declared. “And it’s not just … primary sanctions. It’s also secondary sanctions. Say, ‘If you do business with Russia, you can’t do business with Russia and the United States.’ We’re the largest economy in the world. Everyone wants to do business with us, but if we say, ‘If you do business with Russia, you can’t also do business with us,’ it actually puts the world on notice, and it severely limits the access of capital to Russia.”
He continued, “Everyone forgets — Russia’s economy is smaller than the size of Texas’ economy. So, they have a very small economy. They are very dependent on their exports of oil and natural gas. If we’re to put real leverage on them, it’s to put leverage in cutting off their oil and gas sales to the world and then supplying that oil and gas to the rest of the world and so the world knows you do have a reliable partner and Russia loses access to capital. That’s real sanctions that’ll really matter to Russia.”
According to Lankford, if Biden fails to meet Putin with “strength,” the Russian authoritarian “will just roll over” him.
“You can’t have a moment where people are weak in dealing with Vladimir Putin,” he advised.
“Putin’s going to deal with strength. And if you don’t meet strength with strength, then he will just roll over you, and we have seen that in multiple places. ”
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