(Washington) The international sanctions promised by the West if President Vladimir Putin decides to send troops to invade Ukraine will make Russia a “pariah”, a senior White House official warned on Friday.
Posted at 4:08 p.m.
“She would become a pariah to the international community,” White House deputy national security adviser for international economics Daleep Singh told reporters.
Russia would also be “isolated from global financial markets and deprived of the most sophisticated technological inputs,” he said.
The sanctions planned by Washington were shaped in a “responsible” manner, in order “to avoid targeting the Russian people and to limit the collateral damage for the United States and the world economy”, declared Daleep Singh.
“Russia would face the prospect of significant capital flight, increased pressure on its currency, rising inflation, higher borrowing costs, an economic downturn, and the erosion of its productive capacity” , he detailed, representing “an outright strategic defeat for Russia.”
The White House adviser also maintained that the United States was “ready” in the event that Moscow used energy resources as leverage.
“We have taken steps […] to coordinate with the largest energy consumers and energy producers to ensure that we have continuous energy supplies, and stable energy markets,” said Daleep Singh.
Washington had previously said that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which connects Russia to Germany by sea, would not come into operation if Moscow were to attack Ukraine.
At the same press conference, White House hacking adviser Anne Neuberger accused Russia of being “responsible” for the latest cyberattacks that targeted several official Ukrainian military websites and two state-owned banks on Tuesday, attacks for which the Kremlin had denied responsibility.