Rep. Meijer says Russia sanctions don't go far enough: Biden's messaging 'similar to Afghanistan'

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Rep. Meijer: 'These sanctions did not go far enough'

House Foreign Affairs Committee member Peter Meijer, R-Mich., on his frustrations that sanctions were not enough to deter Russia from further action against Ukraine

Rep. Peter Meijer, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, joined ‘Fox & Friends First’ Friday to express frustration with the new sanctions on Russia from President Biden. Meijer, R-Mich., said sanctions need to be "merciless," including economic isolation, to have an effect on Putin and said the administration's messaging reminds him of the Afghanistan exit last summer.

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REP. PETER MEIJER: Just two weeks ago, national security adviser Sullivan said that they were intended to deter. And yesterday, President Biden said that no one should have been under that impression. So I think there is similar messaging as in Afghanistan, where they're trying to backwards rationalize that the sanctions that were unveiled yesterday were good. They should have been the sanctions unveiled a week ago. I'm frustrated that they did not go far enough. These were not the ‘mother of all sanctions’ that we were promised. These did not include de-linking Russia from the SWIFT global currency system. It did not involve direct sanctions against Putin himself. We need to be merciless in terms of the economic isolation of Russia, of Vladimir Putin, of Belarus, Lukashenko, most especially of the billionaire oligarchs that have enriched themselves off of corruption and Putin's Russia.

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