Michael V. Matheron, April 10, 2023
The White House today reported a new sanction affecting Vladimir Putin, perhaps the most crippling sanction to date. A State Department spokesperson read from a prepared document to assembled reporters:
“Our sanctions have not had the desired affect thus far as Russian forces continue on the offensive in Ukraine, particularly in the east. Economic sanctions take time to induce compliance, sanctions against individual oligarchs have had limited success, including those thus far levied against President Putin himself.
“Therefore, the Biden administration will end a concession that Mr. Putin received from President Trump as an incentive award. Starting today the United States will no longer permit Vladimir Putin to vote in our homeland’s elections. This sanction ends one of Mr. Putin’s most cherished privileges, as he has voted in more than 700 local, state, and federal elections since January 20, 2017, the date President Trump ascended to office. Moreover, we’ve learned recently that Mr. Putin voted six times in the 2020 presidential election.
The administration uses sanctions only in extraordinary circumstances. We only sparingly resort to such crippling sanctions as that today levied against President Putin. Our hope is that losing the cherished right to vote will move Mr. Putin to reconsider his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and withdraw immediately.”
No questions followed.
