The State Department once refused to support a GOP-led measure which would have imposed immediate sanctions on the Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline, writing in a January memo that President Biden‘s threat of sanctions on Russia was key to deterring Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s actions.
The five-page document, as reported by Politico, was titled “The Cruz Bill is Designed to Undermine the Unity of our Allies, not Punish Russia.”
The memo was sent to Senate Democrats in an effort to sway the outcome of a vote by the Senate on a bill that would have imposed swift sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, a measure introduced by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
In the document, under a section headed “NS2 Sanctions are Credible leverage over Russia,” the Biden State Department wrote that the “deterrent potential of sanctions/shutting down the pipeline would be lost” if sanctions were to be applied at the time to the pipeline which spans from Russia to Germany.
The sentiment offered in that memo from Biden’s State Department earlier this year differs immensely from comments made Thursday by Biden during a press conference at a NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium. Biden now claims sanctions “never deter.”
“Let’s get something straight. You remember if you covered me from the very beginning, I did not say that, in fact, the sanctions would deter him. Sanctions never deter. You keep talking about that. Sanctions never deter,” Biden said in response to a question from CBS reporter Christina Ruffini.
Ruffini repeated the question, asking whether these actions could make Putin change course.
“That’s not what I said. You’re playing a game with me. The answer’s no,” Biden snapped back.
Biden instead suggested that the best way to push back against Putin’s actions was to ensure a strong, unified Western alliance.
“The maintenance of sanctions, increasing the pain and the demonstration [is] why I asked for this NATO meeting today, is to be sure that after a month, we will sustain what we’re doing, not just next month, the following month, but for the remainder of this entire year,” Biden said.
Biden continued, saying the “single most important thing is for us to stay unified” and for the world to “continue to focus on what a brute [Putin] is, and all the innocent people’s lives are being lost and ruined.”
“We have to stay fully, totally thoroughly united,” he said.
Biden’s remarks come after weeks of messaging from key Biden administration officials – including Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken – who claimed the sanctions placed on Russia were meant to deter the actions of Putin.
Harris said in February that the “purpose of the sanctions has always been and continues to be deterrence.”
