John Kennedy: This Is How We Can Put Putin 'On His Knees' And Force Ukraine Settlement

Forbes Breaking News

During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) spoke about his bill that would sanction Russian oil and countries that purchase it.

Transcript

00:00I want to talk about just a few subjects briefly today, in no particular order.

00:05I want to talk first about Russia and the war with Ukraine.

00:14Now, regardless of how you feel about the war in Ukraine,

00:20I think most fair-minded people can agree on two things.

00:24Number one, Vladimir Putin, who runs Russia, not the people of Russia,

00:34but their leadership, is a thug.

00:39He's a pirate.

00:42He has blood under his fingernails.

00:47He can't be trusted.

00:49And the second thing that I think most fair-minded Americans can agree on

00:54is that we would all like to see the war ended.

00:59President Trump has tried.

01:03And frankly, President Putin has treated our president,

01:10as I've said before in the Senate floor,

01:12Putin has treated our president like President Trump has taken the bullet train to Chumptown.

01:23He says all the right things when he talks to our president,

01:27and then he does the opposite.

01:30And I think he's disrespected America, he meaning President Putin.

01:35And I think he's disrespected President Trump.

01:37I think Ukraine is willing to negotiate a reasonable settlement.

01:43But it takes two to tango, and we're not going to have a settlement

01:46until President Putin decides it is in his best interest to stop the war.

01:55Not Russia's best interest, because I don't think he cares about his people.

02:00I think the war will stop when Putin thinks it's in his best interest.

02:04And I don't think he's going to think it's in his best interest

02:09until he feels the pressure, Mr. President.

02:13Because dealing with Putin is like dealing with most tyrants.

02:17It's like hand-feeding a shark.

02:20You can't reason with them.

02:23You have to make them feel the pain.

02:26A lot of people think of Russia and think of Putin as this gigantic country

02:33with a lot of wealth and power.

02:36And that's not really the case, Mr. President.

02:39Yes, they have nuclear weapons.

02:42But actually, the Russian economy is pretty small.

02:45Now, the Russian economy, for example, the European economy is about $50 trillion.

02:55That's their GDP.

02:57The Russian economy is only about $2 trillion.

03:01New York State in America has a bigger economy than Russia.

03:07And I think we need to keep that in mind.

03:09Russia's economy is also not terribly diversified.

03:15It's mostly oil.

03:18Putin relies on oil revenues for about a third of his budget.

03:28Now, why am I saying all this?

03:31Because the Russian economy is not in great shape, Mr. President.

03:34They're spending almost all of their money, about 7% of their GDP, to fuel their war machine.

03:43And the Russian economy wasn't that great, frankly, to begin with.

03:49And if you sit down and just look at the numbers and the statistics,

03:56you will see that the Russian economy, at one point, inflation was through the roof.

04:04At one point, I think they had 21% inflation.

04:09I think if you look at the Russian economy, you'll see that many of the commentators in Russia think that –

04:18and this is coming from the Russian commentators, not from others.

04:24They think that Russia might be on the verge of going into a recession.

04:29And if you look at the numbers coming out of Russia, you will see that manufacturing in Russia is declining.

04:44You will see a lot of the consumers, people, ordinary people in Russia, tightening their belts.

04:51Inflation, which I alluded to, Mr. President, remains high.

04:56And the Russian budget is strained.

04:58The price of oil is down.

05:00Remember, I said Putin depends on oil for about 30% to a third of his revenue, and the price of oil is down.

05:07Their growth model in Russia, their model of sustenance, is based on the war.

05:16And they're starting to feel the effects of that.

05:21For example, in the first quarter of this year, the Russian GDP grew 1.4%.

05:27You might be thinking, well, that's not bad.

05:30It's not great, but it's not bad.

05:33The fourth quarter of 2024, though, if you look at the numbers, the Russian economy grew 4.5%.

05:40So clearly, it's slowing.

05:43And once again, remember I said the Russian economy is based on oil.

05:48Why is it slowing?

05:50Well, number one, the price of oil is down.

05:54We know that.

05:57Number two, Russia is spending all of its money fighting the war with Ukraine, which has hurt other parts of its economy.

06:10The point I'm trying to make, Mr. President, when you're dealing with a tyrant like Putin,

06:17and you're trying to bring him to the negotiating table, what you have to do is get him down and choke him.

06:24And the way to get President Putin down and choke him is through his cash flow.

06:33Putin, and remember, I'm not talking about the good people of Russia.

06:36I'm talking about their leadership.

06:38I'm talking about Vladimir Putin, the thug.

06:42Putin is only able to prosecute his war through cash flow generated by his sale of oil.

06:50Putin, that's the only way.

06:52Without that cash flow from oil, he can't continue.

06:59We need to cut off his money.

07:02We need to cut off his sale of oil.

07:05Now, we already have sanctions on Russia.

07:08And Europe has sanctions on Russia.

07:10But Russia has figured out how to evade those sanctions and continue to sell its oil.

07:17For example, India is buying a lot of Russia's oil.

07:22China is buying a lot of Russia's oil.

07:26But we can stop that.

07:29We have a bill, 87 of us have signed on,

07:33that would apply what's called secondary sanctions on Russia.

07:39And not only sanction,

07:40our bill would not only sanction Russia

07:43and its sale of oil,

07:46but it would sanction everybody who buys Russian oil.

07:51Big difference.

07:53Big difference.

07:55It would say to those who want to buy Russian oil,

07:58if you want to buy Russian oil,

08:00have that.

08:01Knock yourself out.

08:02But you're not going to be able to do business with America.

08:07And you're not going to be able to use the American dollar,

08:10which is the world's currency,

08:12to do business in America.

08:14It will put Putin on his knees

08:18within three months.

08:22And he won't have any choice

08:24but to come to the bargaining table.

08:26Now, President Trump has been very patient.

08:28President Biden,

08:33he wasn't patient.

08:36He was giving.

08:39I remember when President Biden said,

08:41well, said to Putin,

08:43well, you know,

08:44we don't want you to go into Ukraine,

08:45but if it's just a little excursion,

08:47it might be okay.

08:48I remember that.

08:50What do you think Putin did?

08:52Remember?

08:52Hand-feeding a shark?

08:53He went right into Ukraine.

08:55President Trump, on the other hand,

08:58has really tried to be rational

08:59and negotiate with Putin

09:02and say, look,

09:03we need to have an amicable solution

09:06to satisfy both sides.

09:09Ukraine is willing.

09:10Putin has done nothing

09:11but embarrass our president

09:13and our country.

09:15The time has come

09:17to put Russia on its knees.

09:21And I hate to see it

09:23for the Russian people,

09:24but the time has come

09:25to put Putin on its knees.

09:28Get him down and choke him.

09:30And the only way you're going to do that

09:32is cut off his cash flow.

09:35And the only way you're going to cut off

09:37his cash flow

09:37is to cut off his oil sales.

09:39Because that's at least a third

09:41and probably 40% of his money.

09:44We have no choice.

09:46Otherwise, this war

09:47could go on forever.

09:50Now, we have the bill

09:51locked, loaded, ready to go.

09:53We're waiting for President Trump

09:55to give us the high side.

09:59Because we want to stay together.

10:01The president's the one

10:02trying to negotiate the peace.

10:05But I hope President Trump

10:06will seriously consider

10:08letting us pull the trigger.

10:10Because it's the only thing.

10:12It's the only thing

10:13that's going to give

10:14Vladimir Putin to the table.

10:18I wish the world weren't like that.

10:20There's just some people.

10:22I don't know why

10:24I make it to heaven.

10:25I'm going to ask.

10:26But there's some people

10:27in this world.

10:28They're not sick.

10:30They're not misunderstood.

10:31They're not mixed up.

10:33It's not really that their mom

10:35and her daddy didn't love them enough.

10:37They're just bad people.

10:39They are.

10:41And some of them run countries.

10:43And one of them

10:44is Vladimir Putin.

10:46So let's go do

10:47what we have to do.

10:47Let me see.

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