Op-Ed: Russian sanctions: Biden admin must tighten, change rules to be taken seriously

This article originally appeared in Fox News on February 27, 2023

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration has deployed a wide array of economic sanctions against Russian companies and persons. These sanctions are designed to inflict economic pain on Russia, restrict Moscow’s ability to fund its invasion, and to hold Putin accountable.  

Most recently, on Feb. 24 – the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – the administration announced a 200% tariff on the import of Russian aluminum, as well as on any third-country-manufactured product that uses Russian aluminum. While this is a good incremental step, the overall effectiveness of the Biden administration’s sanctions regime has been thus far mixed, and news of a flagrant attempt by Russia to evade these sanctions isn’t promising.  

In January, the former head of FBI counterintelligence in New York City was arrested for violating U.S. sanctions laws by taking payments from a well-known Russian oligarch. This FBI official was paid to try and have an oligarch removed from the U.S. sanctions list through an elaborate scheme involving money funneled to him through multiple shell companies via forged purchase orders. 

Read full op-ed in Fox News