Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., told Newsmax that it is Russian citizens, and not President Vladimir Putin, who are paying the economic costs of sanctions imposed following the invasion of Ukraine.
"Unfortunately, it's the Russian people who are suffering," Thune said during "Eric Bolling: The Balance" Wednesday. "It's not Putin and his cronies, the billionaire oligarch club, its average Russians, ordinary Russians, who are really paying the price for this."
Thune said the United States could impose a round of "secondary" sanctions that would impact banks that do business with Russian banks, which have already been sanctioned, along with Russian oligarchs, because of the invasion.
"There are ways that we can continue to tighten the noose, so to speak, economically on Putin, and we ought to be doing that," he said. "The European nations haven't decided to [ban Russian oil and gas imports]. [I am] hopeful that the president, on his trip, can encourage them to shut off importing Russian energy in the same way that the United States is in the process of doing."
The Biden administration imposed several sanctions shortly following the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, and later enhanced them to include a ban on Russian oil and gas imports to the U.S., removing Russia from the world banking system's SWIFT messaging service, and freezing the assets of Putin and several rich Russian cronies that support the invasion, NBC News reported.
Business Insider reported on March 7 that the sanctions were causing the ruble to lose 10% of its value, and a day later, Fox Business reported that Russia's Central Bank had stopped trading foreign currencies.
Thune said there will likely be small "ripples" in the U.S. markets Thursday when the Russian stock market resumes trading after pausing for four weeks.
"Anytime you have a stock market like that one that takes a huge hit, there are some ripple effects," he said. "I think those are things you have to worry about. Some of the collateral damage. I think the United States, for the most part, is pretty insulated."
Thune said that European trade with Russia amounts to around $300 billion a year, compared to just $38 billion in direct trading with the United States, causing the devaluation of the ruble to impact Europe, and its markets, more than the U.S.
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