On Friday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta stated that Russia has managed to evade U.S. sanctions and continue to rake in large sums of oil and gas revenues, and so, we’re “going to have to squeeze them on oil supplies. I think we ought to be opening up LNG ports to be able to deliver more natural gas to Europe.”
Panetta said, “Well, it’s important for the president to have announced these additional sanctions. It is, in many ways, a way of making Putin pay a price for Navalny’s death. But we also understand that Russia has been able to get around the thousands of sanctions that have been applied against them. Their economy is growing. They’ve made something like $99 billion in oil and gas revenues last year. So, they’re continuing to find ways to get around these sanctions. So, I think it’s going to be very important for the United States to continue to squeeze Russia, not just on sanctions, I think they’re going to have to squeeze them on oil supplies. I think we ought to be opening up LNG ports to be able to deliver more natural gas to Europe. I think we have to go after that 350 billion in Russian assets that are being held. We’ve got to find a way to basically unlock the economic value of those assets. There would be nothing better than to provide assistance to Ukraine with Russian money in order for them to kill Russians.”
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