Rubio explains reasons behind U.S. delay in sanctions against Russia

Politico reported the information.

The Secretary of State says that sanctioning Moscow would signal that a ceasefire “is not going to be negotiated anytime soon.”

Congress is working on imposing additional sanctions on Russia, Rubio states.

President Donald Trump is set to defy Europe’s calls for harsher sanctions on Russia, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio explaining on Wednesday that the U.S. still wants room to negotiate a peace deal.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders are hoping to convince Trump later on Wednesday to impose more sanctions on Moscow, especially after Russian leader Vladimir Putin has repeatedly rejected American efforts to broker a ceasefire with Ukraine.

“If we did what everybody here wants us to do, and that is come in and crush them with more sanctions, we probably lose our ability to talk to them about the ceasefire and then who’s talking to them?” Rubio said in an exclusive interview with POLITICO’s Dasha Burns at the NATO summit.

Trump will “know the right time and place” for new economic measures, and the administration is working with Congress to ensure they provide Trump with the necessary flexibility, Rubio stated. However, once that happens, he added, it would likely signal the end of efforts to engage in talks with Russia.

“If he does it, you’re almost admitting that this is not going to be negotiated anytime soon,” Rubio said.

“We’re going to continue to engage,” he continued. “In the sense that if there’s an opportunity for us to make a difference and get them to the table, we’re going to take it.”

The White House is collaborating with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on his bill, which would impose a 500 percent tariff on goods imported from countries that purchase Russian oil, gas, uranium, and other products if Moscow refuses to engage in good faith diplomacy with Ukraine.

“We’ve talked to them about how to frame it, how to structure it, because ultimately, we think it needs to have enough flexibility for the president to be able to impose sanctions, and we haven’t taken off any of the sanctions that we have on,” Rubio said.

As talks with Russia have stalled, Rubio noted that Moscow believes it can achieve its territorial objectives on the battlefield – an assessment Washington disagrees with.

“Our sense of it is that the Russians are going to try to achieve on the battlefield what they’ve demanded at the negotiating table, which is certain territories [to maintain] their administrative lines and the like,” he said. “We think it’s going to be a lot harder for them to achieve that than they think it’s going to be.”

• In early June, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that the EU was preparing an 18th package of tough sanctions targeting Russia's energy revenues. The measures would include action against the Nord Stream infrastructure, new restrictions on Russia's banking sector, and a proposal to lower the price cap on Russian oil.
• On June 8, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on U.S. President Donald Trump to impose additional sanctions on Russia, specifically urging action to reduce the price cap on Russian oil to $30 per barrel as a means to curb Russian aggression.
• At the same time, media reports indicated that the European Commission's proposal to lower the oil price cap faced resistance from some EU member states, which were unwilling to move forward without coordination with the United States.