NEWS: Biden Announces Sanctions on Russia Following Ukraine Invasion

well as you all know yesterday things
took a turn for the worst in ukraine
when russian president vladimir putin
decided to drastically escalate tensions
by ordering the russian military to
conduct quote peacekeeping operations in
donetsk and luhansk after signing
decrees recognizing both areas in
ukraine purportedly as sovereign states
now the peacekeeping operation is a very
flimsy justification for
an invasion it's [ __ ] and anyone
with a brain can see
right through what he's doing there now
i was wrong on this issue i genuinely
didn't really know how to process the
situation i didn't rule out an invasion
given what vladimir putin did in crimea
back in 2014 having said that though
when you see constant posturing from the
russian military when they constantly
increase and decrease the number of
troops on the ukraine border when you
see the ukraine president say that this
invasion isn't as imminent as u.s
intelligence is suggesting you know i
can't help but think
is this as serious is american media
overstating the threat simply at the
behest of the military-industrial
complex and the state department it's
hard to say because i'm very skeptical
of anything that the state department
says but regardless of what led to this
point regardless of what people have
said
russia is the clear aggressor here and
what vladimir putin did is an overt act
of aggression and it destabilizes the
entire region and potentially the world
depending on how bad things get
now in response president biden has
announced sanctions on russia this is
the first set of sanctions and he stated
that he will impose more sanctions in
the event russia continues its
aggression but here's what president
biden said today
so today i'm announcing the first
tranche of sanctions to impose cost on
russia in response to their actions
yesterday
these have been closely coordinated with
our allies and partners and will
continue to escalate sanctions if russia
escalates
we're implementing full blocking
sanctions
on two large russian financial
institutions
veb
and their military bank we're
implementing comprehensive sanctions on
russian sovereign debt
that means we've cut off russia's
government
from western financing it can no longer
raise money from the west and cannot
trade in its new debt on our markets or
european markets either
starting tomorrow and continuing in the
days ahead will also impose sanctions on
russia's elites and their family members
they share in the corrupt gains of the
kremlin policies and should share in the
pain as well
because of russia's actions we've worked
with germany to ensure nordstream 2
will not as i promised will not move
forward so when it comes to how i want
countries to respond to aggression
really the goal here is always to make
sure that the response is proportional
and used specifically to disincentivize
further aggression from another country
not instigate further conflict and i
think that biden's response here
basically
hits that mark in my opinion i think
that his response was measured and
reasonable which is actually surprising
to me given how tough his administration
has talked but you know i hope that
biden continues to reject the advice of
war mongers because i think that a lot
of people are going to call him weak
house republicans have tweeted about how
weak he is and how his response here is
just you know
not good at least that's the implication
but you have to reject all of that and
try to opt for a peaceful solution i
mean a peaceful diplomatic solution at
this point seems like a pipe dream given
what russia did but the fact that biden
isn't actually trying to further
antagonize them and is simply trying to
disincentivize more aggression is i
think what he should be doing as a
responsible world leader although i will
say it is president joe biden and given
his hawkish past i mean he may change it
just kind of depends but at least for
now i think that this targeted set of
sanctions at uh you know russian
oligarchs elites the uh nordstrom
pipeline i think that this is the right
move and it's reasonable to say if
russia continues we will respond with
more sanctions i think that that is
indeed
reasonable at least for now but this
situation is changing a lot and my
position will always be
how do we get away from war how do we
de-escalate that's the position that i'm
coming from and i think that's a fairly
common position that a lot of people are
approaching this situation uh from now
what i do want to share rather than
really sharing my own commentary because
this issue is incredibly complicated i
do want to share what others have to say
about this so the kenyan ambassador to
the united nations security council
had a really compelling response to
russia's aggression
kenya and almost every african country
was birthed
by the ending of empire
our borders were not of our own drawing
they were drawn in the distant colonial
metropoles of london paris and lisbon
with no regard for the ancient nations
that they cleaved apart
today across the border of every single
african country live our countrymen
with whom we share deep historical
cultural and linguistic bonds
at independence had we chosen to pursue
states on the basis of ethnic racial or
religious homogeneity we would still be
waging bloody wars these many decades
later
instead we agreed that we would settle
for the borders that we inherited
but we would still pursue
continental political economic and legal
integration
rather than form nations that looked
ever backwards into history with a
dangerous nostalgia
we chose to look forward to a greatness
none of our many nations and peoples had
ever
known
we chose to follow the rules of the
organization of african unity and the
united nations charter
not because our border satisfied us but
because we wanted something greater
forged in peace
we believe that all states formed from
empires that have collapsed or retreated
have many peoples in them yearning for
integration with peoples in neighboring
states
this is normal and understandable
after all who does not want to be joined
to their brethren and to make common
purpose with them
however
kenya rejects such a yearning from being
pursued by force
we must complete our recovery
from the embers of dead empires
in a way that does not plunge us back
into new forms of domination
and oppression
we rejected irredentism and expansionism
on any basis including racial ethnic
religious or cultural factors
we read we reject it again today so his
perspective here is obviously very
valuable
and what russia is doing here is
imperialist expansionism by force and
that's not acceptable at all
now you can argue that
russia feels threatened by nato and i've
made the the point before that in the
event there was some sort of a defensive
alliance with latin american countries
because of us aggression you know us
wouldn't say kindly to some sort of
alliance with russia in mexico and you
know i think that that's a reasonable
thing to say but that still wouldn't
justify the united states going into
mexico and trying to take over portions
of mexico or
declaring
portions of mexico
as part of the united states or
independent you you can't do things like
that it's it's unacceptable
so you know yes the united states of
america and their history of aggression
and imperialism is absolutely something
that we have to be cautious of and i
will always be skeptical of whatever the
state department says
but at the same time though you can't
give
russia a pass for their imperial
imperialistic endeavors because the us
is saying it right
as a leftist my goal is to ultimately
pursue peace and so i reject all forms
of imperialism u.s imperialism and
russian imperialism and sometimes it's
difficult to wade through all of the
disinformation and propaganda by both of
these imperialist powers but at the end
of the day i think it's pretty obvious
what russia did
they were aggressive
doing that is unacceptable doing that
puts us closer to war and i don't
necessarily believe that this will all
lead to world war three at least i hope
that that's the case knock on wood right
but still what they did was a drastic
escalation and i hope that people see
through it and condemn it i don't care
about the excuses i don't care about the
justifications whatsoever to do what
vladimir putin did is
an explicit escalation it is explicitly
aggressive
and i'm against that i'm against war
mongering i'm against war hawks i'm
against imperialism period full stop
again don't care who does it i'm against
it now i want to share a really good
clip from eddie hassan
where he kind of goes through the
history of russian imperialism it's not
just the united states who is an
aggressive imperialist power it's also
russia as well and medical kind of
breaks down how they've been terrorizing
their neighborhood you know in the same
way that the united states invades
countries russia they do the same sort
of thing just in their backyard
and many hassan had a really good
message that resonated with me at least
at the end so this is relatively long
but it's worthwhile take a look let's
just take a look at russia's record
under putin since the late 1990s and how
absurd the kremlin statement is in that
light because in the 1990s the russian
government fought not one but two wars
in the oil-rich russian republic of
chechnya which is located along its
southern border the conflict there
between chechen separatists and russian
loyalists preceded putin but after he
was appointed prime minister in august
1999 the war took on a new and very
bloody phase islamist fighters invaded
the neighboring republic of dagestan
less than a month later there were a
series of bombings in apartment
buildings in russian cities that left
hundreds dead russian authorities blamed
the attacks on chechen rebels on
terrorists but later in but later
independent investigations presented
evidence that strongly suggested the
bombings were a false flag attack
coordinated by russian security services
to win support for a new full-scale war
in chechnya the pretext was set russia
under its new prime minister launched a
massive months-long aerial campaign that
killed tens of thousands of chechen
civilians creating mass internal
displacement and a huge refugee crisis
russia was accused by human rights watch
and amnesty international of committing
war crimes against the chechen people
the siege lasted until february of the
following year and despite the brutal
military offensive leaders in the west
largely ignored it just the next month
uk prime minister tony blair visited
putin in saint petersburg a private
visit to personalized ties with the new
russian leader they even went to the
opera then in april putin visited the uk
and despite the trip being widely
criticized for such poor timing blair
defended it saying putin wanted a strong
relationship with the west and that he
talks our language of reform well that
so-called reformist was just getting
started in 2008 putin would launch
similar aggressions in the former soviet
state of georgia also located along
russia's southern border georgia became
independent in 1991 but the existence of
pro-russian separatists in the
self-proclaimed republics of south
assetti and abkhazia caused tensions
with moscow a full-blown diplomatic
crisis took place in april 2008. long
story short putin launched another war
backing the separatist regions against
georgian forces he trumpeted claims of
genocide being committed against south
ossetians to win public support hmm
sound familiar
in just 12 days hundreds were killed in
georgia and south ossetia tens of
thousands were displaced russian
president dmitry medvedev called it a
peace enforcement operation
that must be it the russians saw their
military aggression as peace enforcement
not as a tax convenient right and maybe
that's what the seizing of crimea in
2014 was to putin as well not an attack
or invasion or an annexation but a peace
enforcement how about russian bombings
in syria attacks that have been called
war crimes maybe those were peace
enforcements too today it's peacekeeping
functions in donbass according to the
kremlin decree
poor misunderstood vladimir putin all he
wants is peace at the barrel of his gun
in response to putin's latest cynical
moves against ukraine even someone like
democratic socialist senator bernie
sanders who's been much less hawkish
than other u.s lawmakers even bernie
called out the russian president's
escalation in a tweet on saturday it is
beyond belief that in 2022 as we face
challenges like covert and climate
change any national leader would start a
war that could kill thousands and create
millions of refugees he wrote there's a
diplomatic solution it's tragic putin
seems intent to reject it sanders was
attacked by some on the far left for
those comments and i get it the us has
very little credibility in calling out
any country for foreign aggression or
invasions of sovereign territories but
we've covered all that on this show and
the fact is just because the us too
often acts as an imperial power around
the world it doesn't make it okay if
russia and vladimir putin do it too so
that was a great segment by mere hassan
and that last point in particular was
really important you know it's easy for
me to instinctively just dismiss
whatever the united states says because
we are an aggressive imperialist power
and whenever we say something about
another country odds are we're doing it
so we can pursue our own imperialist
ventures
uh but you know that doesn't mean that
you should just disregard other forms of
imperialism that are and have been
taking place throughout the world we
really have to be nuanced here and i'm
preaching to myself mostly trying to be
introspective because this is difficult
for me you know this is a very complex
issue and i i feel
hesitant to speak about this
because i'm not an authority on this and
you know the history here the um
geopolitical politics it's all so
complex but by you know by the end of
this video my takeaway that i want you
to leave with is that all imperialism
bad american imperialism and obviously
russian and purely imperialism too and
what russia did is absolutely aggressive
and imperialistic and the last thing
that i will leave you with is that we
should absolutely reject
any calls for war we should try to do
everything in our power to constantly
de-escalate sure peace looks less likely
de-escalation looks less likely
currently at the moment it's really
bleak
but still we can't afford
to get involved with the war with russia
a war between the united states and
russia even if at the moment it doesn't
necessarily seem likely once you kind of
have momentum towards a particular
direction it's really hard to
shift gears when the momentum is heading
in one direction so before it gets bad
before it becomes this snowball effect
we have to be
absolutely vocal in condemning any sorts
of escalation make sure that when the us
responds to russian aggression we're not
further escalating ourselves this is
really complicated this is a sensitive
issue and i really don't intend on
talking much about this unless i can
bring on an expert and i've reached out
to people who are more familiar uh who
are educated on this and when i say
educated meaning they didn't just read
articles they've been in school for
years studying you know eastern uh
european politics and i think that's
really important but
the takeaway
is we have to try everything in our
power
to stop war reject calls from war
mongers to escalate further and condemn
warmongering and imperialism that's
taking place
around the world you know imperialism is
still imperialism even if it's the
united states that's not doing it so as
a leftist i'm just trying to
stop
an apocalypse i don't know who's going
to start it i don't know where it's
going to come from but as long as we can
stop catastrophic levels of death and
destruction then that's that's my focus
that's my goal but what russia did here
is obviously antithetical to that goal
it's antithetical to peace and diplomacy
and it's just it's [ __ ] up
and stressful and it's infuriating but
you know that doesn't mean that we lose
hope
we just try to do what we can to
pressure our government to not
escalate further and we just
hope that the sanctions will
sufficiently you know um dissuade
vladimir putin from
doing more
but
who knows how that's going to play out
so we'll just cross our fingers
expect expect the worst but ultimately
hope for the best and i feel like that's
really all that we can do and be really
really skeptical of all the information
that we receive and acknowledge that
people who are making videos about this
on youtube myself included we are not
authorities
like you i'm just trying to process all
of this complex information i'm trying
to wade through the details i'm trying
to figure out who's good faith actors
and bad faith actors and i'm trying to
opt for the best outcome for humanity
and that is no war