Blinken: US Will Lift Russian Sanctions Only After Their “Irreversible” Withdrawal From Ukraine’s Territory

NPR reports:

In an interview with NPR, Blinken spoke of Western sanctions that cratered the Russian ruble, led global firms to shutter their Russian operations, and closed the Moscow stock market. He said the unplugging of much of Russia’s economy from the West is beginning to wreak long-term effects that are “growing over time.”

He insisted that U.S. sanctions against Russia are “not designed to be permanent,” and that they could “go away” if Russia should change its behavior.

But he said any Russian pullback would have to be, “in effect, irreversible,” so that “this can’t happen again, that Russia won’t pick up and do exactly what it’s doing in a year or two years or three years.”

Read the full article.

To lift sanctions, the US wants an “irreversible” Russian withdrawal from Ukraine. @SecBlinken in an @NPR interview: https://t.co/EsDIagoD53

— Steve Inskeep (@NPRinskeep) March 16, 2022