US: Crippling sanctions to halt Russia’s aggression against Ukraine

WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (PRIME) -- The U.S. assumes that ‘crippling’ sanctions against the Russian economy should be a deterrent against the country’s aggression against Ukraine, spokeswoman for the White House Jen Psaki told reporters at a briefing late on Thursday.

“We have done some sanctions in advance already. … Our approach from the beginning has been based on our belief that, you know, the crippling economic sanctions package that we have been discussing and has been underway in our interagency process, which we briefed Congress on, is a – has a deterrent – could have a deterrent impact as we’re already seeing in the Russian markets,” Psaki said.

As Psaki said, there are no more ‘red lines’ in the issue, as preemptive sanctions didn’t work.

According to spokesman for the State Department Ned Price, the U.S. will also prevent China and other actors from helping Russia mitigate the effects of the sanctions.

“The United States and our allies and partners … have an array of tools that we can deploy if we see foreign companies, including those in China, doing their best to backfill U.S. export control actions, to evade them, to get around them,” Price said.

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