U.S. President Joe Biden has rejected the package of anti-Russian sanctions three times this year because they were not tough enough, Politico reports, citing two former U.S. officials informed of the events.
"When National Security Council officials approached President Joe Biden with a package of sanctions to impose on Russia earlier this year, he sent it back to them three times. It’s not tough enough, he told them," the officials said.
When asked about the sanctions package that Biden sent back multiple times, however, the senior administration official said Biden wasn’t asking for the sanctions to be more punitive or to hurt the Russian people. Rather, the president wanted to make sure the sanctions were “smart” and well-crafted so that they could change the Kremlin’s behavior.
