Weekend Quotables
Day 5 of invasion. Will peace talks work?
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its fifth day, there’s guarded optimism over talks between delegations from the two countries set to take place today inside Ukraine, near the Belarusian border.
Over the weekend, the US and European allies announced plans to target the Russian central bank’s foreign reserves and to block selected Russian financial institutions from the SWIFT messaging system for international payments. But aside from halting a Russian pipeline that had not yet started pumping gas to Europe, the countries have stopped short of launching crippling sanctions against Russia's oil and gas industry, a major sector of its economy. They will still allow Russia to make energy transactions via SWIFT partly because they don't want energy prices to spike and benefit Putin, whose country is a major energy exporter, a senior admin official tells reporters on a conference call.
The Biden administration on Sunday condemned Vladimir Putin’s decision to place Russia’s nuclear deterrence forces on high alert. Speaking on ABC’s This Week, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, described the nuclear deterrence announcement as an example of Putin “manufacturing threats that don’t exist in order to justify further aggression”.
Jen Psaki (with a straight face)
“At no point has Russia been under threat from NATO.” — ABC This Week
Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen, European Commission President
"For the first time ever, the European Union will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country that is under attack. She went on to say that "in another unprecedented step, we will ban in the EU the Kremlin's media machine," citing Russia Today and Sputnik.” — NBC News
Rep. Pramila Jayapal
My thoughts are with those who have already and will suffer the greatest harm from Putin’s aggression: the people of Ukraine. It is critical that as the crisis in Ukraine continues, we also continue diplomatic negotiations to quickly end fighting. — @RepJayapal
Russian President, Vladimir Putin
…told French President Emmanuel Macron that a Ukraine settlement was only possible if Kyiv was neutral, "denazified" and "demilitarised" and Russian control over annexed Crimea was formally recognised. — Reuters
Donald Trump Jr. closes out CPAC
“Crack’s not really my thing.” — Plainsman Post