United States President Joe Biden said on Monday that he was “considering” new sanctions against the Russia of his counterpart Vladimir Putin, whom the former tenant of the White House, Donald Trump, was careful not to denounce for the death of Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny.
“We already have sanctions but we are in the process of considering additional ones, yes,” responded to journalists the democratic leader who had judged President Putin “responsible” for the death of Navalny announced Friday in a prison in the ‘Arctic.
The United States and the European Union have already applied a battery of sanctions against Moscow since the outbreak of war following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
And President Biden indicated on Saturday that he had expressed to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky his “confidence” in the continuation of American military aid to kyiv, currently blocked by the House of Representatives of Congress.
The Senate, with a Democratic majority, approved a new package including $60 billion in military assistance for Ukraine, which is desperately demanding it from the United States and its Western allies.
But the leader of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, refuses any vote on the project.
Trump’s influence
Democratic President Biden assured Monday that he “would be happy” to discuss with Mr. Johnson, whose positions are under the influence of former President Trump (2017-2021), arch-favorite in the Republican primaries with a view to the November presidential election. .
Republicans are also demanding that tougher immigration legislation be approved in Congress before any new aid to Ukraine.
“The way they [les républicains] are turning away from the threat that Russia represents, the way in which they are turning away from NATO and our obligations, it is simply shocking,” thundered Joe Biden while campaigning for his re-election.
The Democratic leader has been outraged for ten days by the comments of Donald Trump, his probable rival in November, who said that under his presidency, the United States would not protect a NATO ally, or even “encourage” Russia to attack it if its military spending did not reach 2% of its GDP.
The businessman and political tribune also broke his silence over Navalny’s death by saying nothing against President Putin and attacking the Biden administration.
“The sudden death of Alexei Navalny made me increasingly aware of what is happening in our country,” he wrote on his Truth Social network.
“It’s a slow and steady progression that is leading us down the path to destruction with crooked politicians, prosecutors and judges of the radical left,” stormed Mr. Trump for whom “open borders, rigged elections and decisions downright unjust justice systems ARE DESTROYING AMERICA. WE ARE A DECLINED AND FAILING NATION! MAGA 2024.”
Nikki Haley, her only competitor in the Republican primaries, immediately denounced a “crazy” message which “compares America to Russia”, where Donald Trump “makes himself look like the victim”.
The former ambassador to the UN under the Trump administration deplored in a statement that the former Republican president had not “condemned Putin as the brute that he is” and “recognized Putin’s role in the assassination of Navalny.”
President Biden affirmed on Friday that his Russian counterpart was “responsible” for Navalny’s death.