Portman: Sanctions on Russian Energy Must Be Tightened, Some Don't Kick in Until June

On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “America Reports,” Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) argued that the most important sanctions the U.S. can impose on Russia would be getting other countries to cut off Russian energy imports by providing more energy ourselves and tightening sanctions on energy transactions.

Portman said, [relevant remarks begin around 2:20] “The number one revenue source for Russia is energy. So, it’s their biggest export, it’s where they’re getting most of the revenue to fund the war machine. So, we’ve to do more to cut that off. There are some countries that are very dependent on Russian gas, in particular, in Europe, where that’s more difficult. But look, we did it here, we cut off, not just oil and gas, but also coal exports. And we need to have other countries do the same. In order to help some of these European countries deal with this transition away from the Russian fuel, we should be providing them more of our own fuel. Because we’ve got plenty of it, as do other countries that are willing to help, particularly in the Mideast, and that would be liquified natural gas going into these countries.”

He continued, “So, I think we should immediately enter into contracts for liquified natural gas, let the Europeans, like Germany, know that we’re going to be there to help them, other countries, like Qatar, are willing to do the same thing. That’s going to be the most important sanction left, which is to cut off this revenue that he’s getting to fund the war machine. By the way, we also, in our country, have sanctions on banks that we’ve put out, but some of these sanctions don’t go into effect as they relate to energy transactions until June 24, that’s way too late. So, we’ve got to also tighten up what we’re doing with regard to the financial sanctions as they relate to energy.”

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