The U.S. and its allies need to prevent Russia from exporting oil and natural gas in order to deter it from invading Ukraine, Sen. Marco Rubio told CNBC on Tuesday.
The Florida Republican, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, cited two reasons why Putin thinks he can get away with attacking Ukraine. We have to take one of them away.
Taking Russia's nuclear weapons away isn't really an option. Putin put his nuclear deterrent forces on high alert.
That leaves sanctions. Until now, the wide array of measures taken by America and Western nations to pressure Putin have not included directly targeted Russian oil over concerns about sending energy prices even higher. The price of crude oil in the U.S. and international market went up to their highest level in over a year after Russia regained control of the peninsula.
When asked if Russia should be prevented from exporting its oil and gas as leverage in the current Ukraine crisis, he said, "I think we can and we should."
Canada is the only country that will ban Russian oil imports. The project to increase the flow of Russian gas to Germany was halted last week by Germany.
The State of the Union address on Tuesday would be ideal for Biden to encourage the U.S. to return to pre-covid oil and natural gas output levels.
I won't hear that the president is going to get back into the business of aggressively producing oil and natural gas and exporting it as well.
Russia has not been a top supplier of oil to the U.S., but imports from Russia have increased in recent years. He urged the U.S. to divert cash from criminals like Putin.
The world needs to keep up the economic pressure on Putin.
The ruble crashed under the weight of international sanctions. The Russian central bank raised its key interest rate to try to stop the plunge.
The Russian stock market was open Tuesday. Russian exchange-traded funds took a beating over the past two sessions.
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