McConnell calls for 'toughest possible sanctions' against Russia

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: The Hill

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday urged President Biden to impose the "toughest possible sanctions" on Russia after a top Biden national security adviser said Russia's deployment of troops into two breakaway regions of Ukraine constituted an invasion.

"Now, the president, roughly at the same time we're meeting here, is addressing the current situation. What I hope he's saying - what I hope he's saying right now - is that from a sanctions point of view, we're gonna impose the toughest possible sanctions. The toughest possible sanctions," McConnell said during a Commerce Lexington event in Kentucky on Tuesday.

Biden is scheduled to provide an update on the Ukraine-Russia situation this afternoon.

Tensions ratcheted up Monday when Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized as independent two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine - the so-called Luhansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic - then sent troops into the territories.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/mcconnell-calls-for-toughest-possible-sanctions-against-russia/ar-AAUaH2A?li=BBnbfcQ

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Better talk to your partner Rand Paul.

[comradebillyboy]

1. Good for Mitch. The old bastard is doing the right thing in this crisis.

I hope some of the unpatriotic pukes follow his example.

[dalton99a]

2. Lindsey Graham wants to go after Putin's assets personally

Lawmakers return to Washington next week, and they are vowing to pass what Sen. Lindsey Graham, R.S.C., called a “sanctions regime from hell.” That is something senators failed to agree to last week, instead settling for a joint statement from congressional leaders and a toothless resolution supporting Ukraine and condemning Russian aggression.

“I’d like to go after Putin and his cronies as hard as we can. I would like to make life miserable for Putin and those who support him, because if we don’t, other bad actors [like China and Iran] are going to move quickly in other areas,” Graham told reporters in South Carolina.

Graham, the top Republican on the Budget Committee and a defense hawk, also said he’s been on the phone “all morning” working with Democrats on an emergency supplemental funding package that would launch a new task force at the Justice, State, Treasury and Defense departments targeting Russian oligarchs.

“I want this task force to go after Putin’s assets personally,” the senator said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/biden-faces-bipartisan-calls-punishing-russian-sanctions-rcna17219

[C_U_L8R]

3. If you want to really get Russia's atttention.

Seize the Bank of Cyprus. Every gangster oligarch will go "welp".

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. That's tRump's Commerce Sec old bank. Wilbur's {strike}bank{/strike} laundromat

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/05/trump-commerce-secretary-wilbur-ross-business-links-putin-family-paradise-papers

Wilbur Ross stands to profit from company run by Russians, some of whom are under US sanctions
by Jon Swaine and Luke Harding
Sun 5 Nov 2017 18.00 GMT
Last modified on Thu 7 Jan 2021 00.04 GMT

Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, is doing business with Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law through a shipping venture in Russia.

Leaked documents and public filings show Ross holds a stake in a shipping company, Navigator, through a chain of offshore investments. Navigator operates a lucrative partnership with Sibur, a Russian gas company part-owned by Kirill Shamalov, the husband of Putin’s daughter Katerina Tikhonova.

In 2014, Ross led a €1bn takeover of the Bank of Cyprus, a favoured destination for Moscow oligarchs seeking to store their wealth. Until 2013, the bank’s biggest shareholder was the Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev. In 2008, as the US began to fall into a financial crisis, Rybolovlev bought a Florida mansion from Trump for $95m. The future president had paid $41m for it four years earlier.

Also invested in the bank takeover was the billionaire Russian industrialist Viktor Vekselberg. Vekselberg, who owns the world’s biggest collection of Fabergé eggs, attended the now infamous December 2015 dinner in Moscow for the Kremlin TV channel RT, where Trump’s future national security adviser Michael Flynn was photographed next to Putin.

Ross sat on the senior leadership team of Bank of Cyprus alongside Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, a former KGB colleague of Putin’s who is also on the board of several state corporations in Moscow.

And in 2015, while Ross was vice-chairman of the bank, its Russia-based businesses were sold off to Artem Avetisyan, a Russian businessman who had been appointed by Putin to lead an agency responsible for strengthening ties between the Kremlin and business.

[C_U_L8R]

10. Over $20B in assets. That might leave a mark.

With a who's who of offshore money laundering. They'd deliver Putin on a rail before losing their precious hordes.

[lastlib]

18. And sanction the hell out of Alfa Bank.....

...just because.....

[DemocraticPatriot]

20. Why is that?

Tell us.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. But . . . . but . . . . Mitch is agreeing with Joe Biden.

Something unnatural about that.

[Ray Bruns]

5. It's a trap!

[Grokenstein]

7. Believe it when you see it.

That's a chicken you can't count until the day after you've eaten it.

[DemocraticPatriot]

21. The day after I have eaten McConnell chicken,

I always have digestive disorders...


Luckily I run no fans in the bathroom... or something like that

[Igel]

19. Not how I read it.

He's saying that instead of the sanctions laid, there should be the harshest possible sanctions.

It's a criticism and lukewarm support.

[Magoo48]

25. Moscow Mitch. Really?

It’s difficult to keep up with the direction of the blowing winds.

Don’t get dizzy Mitch.

[mitch96]

6. I wonder how this is gonna sit with his buddy Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

Deripaska invested millions in a Kentucky aluminum plant..
m
https://www.newsweek.com/company-russian-oligarch-millions-aluminum-plant-mitch-mcconnell-1397061

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a27259438/oleg-deripaska-kentucky-aluminum-mitch-mcconnell-rand-paul/

[AllyCat]

8. For once I agree with Moscow Mitch. He's not being as Moscowy right now

and actually doing the right things. Hit Putin with everything we have to stop this invasion.

[PortTack]

11. .it also jabs at the orange mass. So...for now..good

[hay rick]

12. Interesting.

Old guard escalation against Trump. I think Mitch smells blood. As for "doing the right thing for once"...LOL.

[cstanleytech]

13. Mitch has been Putin's Bitch for so long that this is actually surprising news.

[monkeyman1]

14. the double agent trick ! I don't believe a damn word of it ! TDFG ol' distraction crap !!

[sakabatou]

15. All talk, no action.

[angrychair]

16. McConnell

Better check in with the home office. His boss is praising Putin as a "genius" for invading Ukraine.
Your master isn't going to like you not following his talking points of praising Russia.

[DemocraticPatriot]

22. Trump already didn't like McConnell...

and that is the best thing I have to say about Mitch.

[lastlib]

17. This is his act for public consumption.....

We need to watch what he says and does behind closed doors.......probably sucking up to Deripaka, telling him how to avoid the sanctions. (my guess)

[Brainfodder]

23. Is Mitch OK?

[Skittles]

24. interesting, coming from Moscow Mitch

hmmmmmm

[Bengus81]

26. Doesn't Turtle and Graham realize their Fuehrer is PRAISING Puti-poot??

They need to get updated.

[Calista241]

27. I'm having a hard time caring all that much about Russia and Ukraine.

It's all the way around the world. I understand it's bad, and needs to be stopped before Russia goes into other countries. But Ukraine was a part of Russia for hundreds of years prior to 1991. Since 1793 to be exact. That's longer than the US has been in existence.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

28. Where do you live?

The US has been in existence since 1776. Every American should know that.