Russia Sanctions Could 'Go to a 10' If Putin Doesn't Negotiate, Treasury Secretary Says
President Donald Trump has instructed the Treasury Department to increase sanctions "to bring President [Vladimir] Putin to the table," if necessary, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. He stated that Trump had "instructed [him] to rethink the sanctions regime" and that the administration is "going for the maximum impact sanctions."
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The administration plans on keeping the sweeping energy sanctions that President Joe Biden's National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan raised "on his way out the door" (see 2503140041), Bessent said March 18 in an interview with Fox Business. He described that increase as having "gone from a three to a six" out of 10. Should Putin refuse to negotiate over Ukraine, Bessent said, "President Trump has instructed me that, if we need to, we will go to a 10 with sanctions to bring President Putin to the table."
However, Bessent said that he is "optimistic" that Trump will bring Putin "to the table without increasing the sanctions, but all options are on the table to increase, and go to maximum energy sanctions on Russia, if needed."
He criticized the Biden administration's sanctions approach, saying that "for a long time, we'd have what I would call lazy sanctions. They would just sit there." Last week, Bessent referred to the last-minute sanctions by Sullivan as a "craven political move" (see 2503070035).
"As far as Russia sanctions, I will tell you that it was completely incongruous, the way the Biden administration behaved," Bessent said. Despite sending "tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine," the U.S. had what Bessent described as "lackadaisical sanctions."
He suggested the Trump administration will be much more aggressive, especially when it comes to Iran: "We come in, we hit them hard, we hit them fast, we hit them heavy, and that's what we are doing with Iran."
Bessent said the Biden administration "gave [Iran] a pass" but that he believes "when we apply maximum sanctions, cut off the illegal purchases of Iranian oil and close the bank accounts to their leadership, that we can get the Iranian oil exports close to zero again, and that will bring the Iranians to the table."