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Should Biden Liquidate Russia鈥檚 Assets In The U.S.? | The Katie Phang Show - YouTube
Channel: MSNBC
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as the invasion of ukraine enters its
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third month president biden has
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announced new steps to aid ukraine
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today
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i'm announcing another 800 million
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dollars to further augment ukraine's
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ability to fight in the east in the
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donbass region we've intend to provide
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an additional 500 million dollars in
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direct economic assistance to the
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ukrainian government the united states
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will ban
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russian-affiliated ships from our ports
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as they did in europe
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so another 800 million dollars for
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ukraine after the 800 million he
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announced last week and the president
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says the united states is banning
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russian-affiliated ships from all
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american ports these newly announced
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steps are on top of the sanctions that
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the united states and its allies have
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already implemented yet putin seems as
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determined as ever no matter the cost to
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his own country
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even before this current invasion russia
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was under sanctions for invading ukraine
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and seizing crimea in 2014 and although
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those sanctions have been criticized as
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not going far enough they did have an
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effect while the rest of the global
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economy has grown at just over 2 percent
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a year the russian economy has been
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dragging along at about 0.3 percent and
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that was before the swift response from
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western countries this year condemning
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putin's new war against ukraine and
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isolating russia international groups
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like fifa the international olympic
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committee and as of this week the
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wimbledon tennis tournament have all
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moved to ban russian athletes from
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competition international companies like
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google and apple have suspended
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operations in russia as well
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and russia has been hit with new
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sanctions from the united states and its
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allies targeting russian oligarchs and
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russian banks
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so far though
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none of this has managed to deter putin
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not the sanctions not the western
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military aid for ukraine he has
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continued with his war of aggression
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against ukraine despite the cost to his
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own people
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so what else could the world try well
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one idea involves going after the
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billions of dollars that russia has
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parked right here in the united states
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as harvard professor lawrence tribe
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writes quote an obvious solution is
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staring us in the face president biden
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could liquidate the tens of billions of
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dollars the russian central bank has
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parked in the united states as part of
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its foreign exchange reserves by some
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estimates those funds may total as much
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as 100 billion dollars
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and tribe has an idea for what to do
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with that money quote liquidating the
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russian funds now would not only be
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likely the fastest way to increase
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american aid to ukraine without further
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burdening and fatiguing american
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taxpayers
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so that's one idea applying more massive
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economic pain for putin in a way that
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funds more aid for the ukrainian
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military but is that even doable and is
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it going to make a difference joining me
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now is jennifer taub a professor at
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western new england university school of
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law she is the author of the book big
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dirty money the shocking injustice and
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unseen cost of white collar crime jen
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thanks for being here i do want to start
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with this piece that lawrence tribe
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wrote this op-ed that he wrote in the
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new york times bipartisan legislation
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was introduced by representatives tom
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malinowski and joe wilson but do you
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think that this particular legal
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strategy that it's actually going to be
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a viable one
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katie thank you so much for having me
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and congratulations on the new show
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um it's a tough act to follow going
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after ellie miss stall but i'll try to
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be as entertaining on your show um so
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yeah i agree with the approach that
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professor tribe sets out in that op-ed
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and as you've noted
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although there's some bipartisan
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legislation
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that legislation is focused on
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trying to liquidate the assets of
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oligarchs and the trouble with that is
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that would take a very long time to
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actually you know go out and sell the
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yachts that have been seized and so on
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what tribe is talking about is something
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that's fully grounded in law
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and really would
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help the ukrainians get the weapons they
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need to have that overwhelming force
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against russia
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to end that unjust unprovoked genocidal
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war that they have launched and what
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tribe is going for here is having joe
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biden use the authority congress gave
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him on something that dates back in 1977
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it's called the international emergency
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economic powers act and it may sound
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familiar to you because it's been used
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more than 60 times since its enactment
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by various presidents and it's been used
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to do things like seize and freeze
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assets but it's also been used to
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liquidate
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uh bank accounts um and use and send
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that money on to victims or to um other
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countries and so this this does have a
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history and it would be legal
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so jen let's clarify some things so
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people understand that there is a
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distinction with a difference here
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specifically what is the money that
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russia has parked here in the united
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states and how is it currently being
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frozen so that it can't just be taken
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out by putin and others
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that's such a great question katie um so
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what russia has is about
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100 billion dollars in what's called
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foreign currency reserves parked here in
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the u.s um over the all over the globe
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russia has these foreign currency
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reserves about 600 billion dollars of
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them what does this mean it's here we're
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talking about um us dollars in
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uh in banks here
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and the reason why they need the us
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dollars is the reason why many other
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countries need us dollars because that's
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the currency in which uh not just goods
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are bought and sold but borrowing is
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done and other payments are made because
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we are
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the us dollars considered kind of a
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global reserve currency so what the fed
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did
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uh shortly uh or what treasury did
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shortly after the invasion of ukraine
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was to freeze um that hundred billion
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dollars and it's frozen
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under the same law under the
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international emergency economic powers
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act and biden can use that same law
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because there's been an emergency
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declared way back as you mentioned um in
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2014 by president obama with the
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invasion of crimea and that emergency
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has been uh reiterated um in other
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orders by joe biden so you can just use
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that same power uh and and and liquidate
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those assets and send them directly to
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ukraine so they can fund this this
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terrible terrible war that has killed
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thousands of civilians including
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children
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so the treasury department announced
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wednesday jan that it was cracking down
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on russians that are trying to evade
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current sanctions can you briefly
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explain how have the russians been able
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to get around the sanctions so far and
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what did the treasury department do
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yesterday to close up those loopholes
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that's a great question right we keep
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hearing about these different sanctions
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and as mentioned some of the sanctions
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in place actually date back to 2014. so
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what's fascinating about yesterday is um
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it's a really good move um there's some
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loopholes they're trying to crack down
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one was going after some cryptocurrency
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miners but the most interesting part of
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yesterday to me was the mention of
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someone by the name of constantine
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malofa
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and this is a guy who has been running
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putin's anti-ukraine pro-kremlin
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propaganda network for years and he was
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under sanctions haiti since 2014 so it's
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kind of amazing about this is his name
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might be familiar because he was just um
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indicted for violating those sanctions
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um and prior to him being united an
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american who helped him a guy who used
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to be if you could believe it a news
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director for fox news was was arrested
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and charged in london and so just let's
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keep this in mind when the justice
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department announced the arrest of that
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american who helped this russian
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pro-putin propaganda's old clerk who's
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been funding the opposition in ukraine
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for years when this american was
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arrested the department of justice said
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that this was the first
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the very first criminal charge under the
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2014 sanctions eight years so on the one
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hand you and i could say well it's going
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to take eight years to actually enforce
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sanctions because people are gonna
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violate them what good are they well
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all the sanctions that have been put in
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place by treasury recently
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have been really effective as you noted
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the economy is already struggling in
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russia but also the sanctions i believe
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this time around are even tougher
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um and with all the accounts being
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frozen um i think that the pressure is
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real i think it helps um put more
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pressure from the oligarchs onto putin
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but as i said before this is a war um
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and money uh is only gonna be good and
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it can be translated into weapons that
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the ukrainians can use to defend their
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people in their country
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you know jen um
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time is actually money now and it's
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invaluable for the ukrainians to be able
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to have an exit from having to deal with
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this so we hope that you'll come back
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and you'll be able to explain in even
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more detail whether or not this biden
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strategy is going to work if it is one
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that biden decides to adopt as proposed
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by lawrence tribe thank you for being
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here
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thanks for having me
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[Music]
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you
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