Statement from Secretary Pompeo on Energy, Capital Markets, Travel, and the United Nations

February 27, 2022

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo today issued the following statement:

President Biden and his administration must take much stronger action on economic sanctions on Russia while our nation and NATO redoubles military assistance to Ukraine.  President Biden must appeal to the people of Russia who have known far too much war and plead that they insist on peace.

The Biden administration and all of NATO’s thirty member states must proceed immediately to the United Nations General Assembly to obtain a resolution condemning Putin’s unprovoked war against Ukraine.

It is high past time that the United States lead in the removal of all Russian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).  This will hobble Russia economically and effect great costs upon the Russian oligarchs who empower Putin.  Regrettably, it will also hurt the Russian people, who must demand different leadership now.

Russia’s oligarchs, whose international holdings hide Putin’s, must be more broadly sanctioned across the globe, for their wealth supports Russia’s President.  America must lead if other nations are to follow.

The United States must insist that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) shut down landing rights for Russian commercial airlines, for their planes can be commandeered by Putin at any time and used as instruments of war.

President Biden’s shockingly naive energy and environmental policies, which have shut down great swaths of U.S. energy production, including oil, natural gas, and fracking, have induced rampant inflation at home while funding Putin’s war machine abroad, for the Russian economy is dependent on steep fossil fuel prices.

Without the radically higher oil and gas prices induced by President Biden’s fantasies of a non-carbon world, Putin would not have the wherewithal to launch and to maintain his invasion of Ukraine.  United States dependency on and purchase of Russian oil is literally funding the killing of Ukrainians.

Why are Americans spending fortunes at the gas pump only to see our wealth line the pockets of Putin and his cronies?  Unless we sanction the energy exports of Russia and free up American fossil fuels from their imprisonment due to misguided environmental concerns, America will repeat the 1970s — continuing inflation, increasing unemployment, and impoverishing interest rates.  What is certain is that American economic weakness will translate into geopolitical weakness, and, with it, the world held hostage by malevolent powers.  This is a future we must not allow to transpire.

President Biden’s ludicrous energy policies, which he inaugurated on the first day of his administration, have empowered Putin as they have robbed the dreams of so many Americans.  We need to return immediately to the policies that created American energy dominance.
In terms of our capital markets, the Biden administration has shown inadequate leadership.  Sanctions must be comprehensive and extend to existing assets and holdings and not be limited to new investments related to Russia.  Why are millions of American investors being permitted to continue to hold and trade the stocks and bonds of already-sanctioned Russian companies in our capital markets?  It is essentially “business as usual,” which is a disaster for Ukraine, for this inertia disrupts NATO’s and America’s security imperatives.  Make no mistake, the billions of dollars raised from American investors are funding Putin’s fascist war machine and killing innocent men, women, and children, as Putin robs a nation of its heritage.

Weakness in supporting Ukraine will only embolden President Xi to move against Taiwan.  As President Clinton did, when unprovoked Chinese missile strikes threatened Taiwanese democracy, the United States should express its resolve, demonstrating the full spectrum of American power.  This begins with what we do to uphold the Ukrainian nation.