Blinken: ‘There Are Loopholes’ in Russia Sanctions, and Closing Them Can Take Time

During an interview with NBC News aired on Wednesday’s edition of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that while there are some loopholes in the sanctions against Russia, the administration is working to close them, but “Sometimes that takes time.”

Host Andrea Mitchell asked, “Now Europe is putting on new sanctions. China and India keep buying fuel from Russia and fueling this war, helping to fund Putin’s war. Why aren’t we sanctioning China and India?”

Blinken answered, “So, in the first instance, Andrea, these sanctions are having a dramatic impact.”

Mitchell then cut in to state, “But there are big loopholes, and Europe still is buying natural gas and still will for another year.”

Blinken responded, “There are loopholes that, piece-by-piece, one-by-one, we’re trying to close. Sometimes that takes time.”

Blinken continued, “But let’s look at what’s already happened: The sanctions, cumulatively, have put the Russian economy into a deep recession, and what we’re seeing is a likely contraction of the Russian economy by about 15%. That is dramatic. We’ve seen something else. We’ve seen an exodus from Russia of virtually every major company in the world, and Putin, in the space of a matter of weeks, has basically shut down Russia to the world. All of the opening and all of the opportunity that took place over the last 30 years is gone. And the Russians will feel that, I’m afraid, in their daily lives. They won’t be able to buy the things they’re used to buying. They won’t be able to afford to buy what they’d like to buy. And beyond that, the export controls that we put in place, denying Russia the technology that it needs to modernize critical industries like defense, like energy extraction, over time, those are going to have an even greater impact.”

He concluded, “So, we’re already seeing a dramatic impact to this. And yes, there are places where different countries are doing different things. We’re working every single day to close that down.”

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