Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated “all options are on the table” for further sanctions on Russia, as it continues its onslaught against Ukraine following an historic summit with President Donald Trump on US soil.
“President Putin, since the historic meeting in Anchorage, since the phone call, when the European leaders and President Zelensky were at the White House the following Monday, has done the opposite of following through on what he indicated he wanted to do – as a matter of fact, he has in a despicable, despicable mannerincreased the bombing campaign,” Bessent stated in an interview with Fox News.
“I think with President Trump, all options are on the table, and I think we’ll be examining those very closely this week,” Bessent continued.
The Trump administration has been, thus far, reluctant to slap further sanctions on Russia in its continued efforts to succeed in peace between Russia and Ukraine, regardless of repeated threats.
Following the summit with President Vladimir Putin, Trump final month stated he would know within “two weeks” whether or not Russia was critical about getting into negotiations — invoking a deadline he has frequently cited, solely to see it come and go with out actions. But in those self same feedback, he floated the chance of strolling away altogether, a chance he has but to rule out, administration officers previously told NCS.
Trump reiterated in latest days that he would punish Russia with sanctions if it refuses to make peace, saying, “It will not be a world war but it will be an economic war.” He didn’t set a deadline on when he would possibly enact these financial penalties, nonetheless. The president shortly went on to say that he didn’t wish to impose new sanctions or tariffs geared toward hurting Russia’s economic system, expressing hope that there’s nonetheless a path towards brokering a deal to finish the war.
In an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation” on August 17, following the Alaskan summit, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that new sanctions would successfully finish peace talks.
“At the end of the day, if peace is not going to be possible here, and this is just going to continue on as a war, people will continue to die by the thousands, the President has that option to then come in and impose new sanctions. But if he did this now, the moment the President puts those additional sanctions, that’s the end of the talks,” Rubio stated. “You’ve basically locked in at least another year to year and a half of war and death and destruction.”