Admin l Sunday, February 20, 2022
WASHINGTON – Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken has said that the G7 countries decided not to impose sanctions on Russia now ahead of any strike on Ukraine so that threats of massive sanctions will continue to act as deterrent.
Blinken who was speaking on NBC meet the press with Chuck Todd said that once sanction is imposed when Russia has not crossed the border, the sanctions will eventually get absorbed by President Vladimir Putin and he will move on.
“As soon as you trigger the sanctions, of course, any deterrent effect they may have is gone. They get absorbed by President Putin, and he moves on”, he said. Blinken said G7 will continue to build everything it can to deter him from the course that he’s now set on.
“And until the last minute, there is still an option to – for him to pull back. That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to prevent a war”, he said, stressing “just in Munich a day ago where we were all gathered, the G7 countries, the leading democratic economies in the world, reiterated very forcefully the massive consequences that would befall Russia and President Putin with sanctions if the aggression actually goes forward”.
He explained that the G7 will try to build everything it can to deter Putin from the course that he’s now set on. “
On Americans in Ukraine, Blinken said the United States will not be in a position to evacuate American in Ukraine if Russia decides to invade Ukraine.
“I’ve said that repeatedly. We’ve been in direct contact with every American we can possibly be in contact with – someone who is a resident, typically this is someone who is a long-term resident of Ukraine who happens to have an American passport.
“We’ve communicated that directly to Congress. We’ve urged them to communicate that to any Americans and groups that they’re in contact with. We’ve been repeatedly clear about this, and we have seen people leave in recent weeks.
“But we are not going to be in a position – our embassy is now shuttered in Kyiv. We’ve moved it to Lviv toward – near the Polish border. We are going to do everything we can to guide Americans who want to leave, to help them get out through – by telling them the best way to do that, to support them as best we can, to have consular services available for them, for example, along the border with Poland. But in terms of an evacuation, that’s not going to happen. And by the way, that almost never happens. Every time in places around the world where for one reason or another we’ve had to shut down an embassy, Americans have remained”, he said.
