Biden Says US Could Go Further With Sanctions Against Russia, Chose Not To

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th April, 2021) US President Joe Biden said that he could have gone further in sanctioning Russia, but chose to be proportionate as he does not want to initiate "a cycle of escalation and conflict."

"I was clear to President Putin that we could have gone further, but I chose not to do so. I chose to be proportionate. The United States is not looking to kick off the cycle of escalation and conflict with Russia. We want a stable, predictable relationship," Biden said in a televised address after he rolled out a series of sanctions against Russia.

Biden added that he gave his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a prior warning during a phone call earlier this week and made no secret of intending to hold Russia accountable for alleged misdeeds in their first conversation in January.

"When President Putin called me in January after I was sworn in to congratulate me, I told him that my administration will be looking very carefully now that we have access to all the data at the issues to assess Russia's role and then determine what response we would make," Biden said.

"When we spoke again this week, I told him that we would shortly be responding in a measured and proportionate way because we have concluded that they have interfered that had interfered in the election and SolarWinds [cyberattack] was totally inappropriate," Biden added.

Russia denies allegations of its interference in the 2020 US presidential election and any role in the SolarWinhds massive cyberattack that targeted 16,000 US agencies and firms. US sanctions include action against sovereign debt and the expulsion of ten diplomats from Washington.