Putin wasn't 'honest' with Trump, treasury chief says as US imposes massive sanctions

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00:00This hour to the U.S. where Washington says it's imposing sanctions on major Russian oil companies

00:06as it ramps up the pressure on Moscow and the Ukrainian president seeks more foreign military

00:12assistance. Separately, the NATO chief who's in Washington for talks at the White House has

00:16reiterated his belief that only Donald Trump can achieve peace between Moscow and Kiev.

00:23Well, for the very latest, let's cross live now to our own Fraser Jackson. He's standing by for us

00:29there in Washington. Fraser, reporters there being told a short time ago about a substantial

00:35pickup in Russian sanctions. What more do we know and how significant is this announcement?

00:43Yeah, earlier in the day, we got a tease from the Treasury Secretary Scott Besson saying that

00:48these sanctions will be coming at either at the end of the day or at the beginning of Thursday,

00:53while late into the afternoon, we got the sanction package dropped by the Treasury,

00:58which says today's actions increase pressure on Russia's energy sector and degrade the Kremlin's

01:04ability to raise revenue for its war machine and support its weakened economy. Now, Besson gave some

01:10reasoning behind these sanctions, saying given President Putin's refusal to end this senseless

01:16war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia's two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin's war machine.

01:22Now, those two oil companies are Rosneft and Look Oil. Those both entities coming under U.S.

01:28sanctions and that will mean that any company, any U.S. entity or any part of the business which has more

01:34than 50 percent interest by the U.S. will then be a part of the sanctions package. Now, Besson gave a bit

01:42more of his rationale behind these sanctions. A few hours before they were released, he spoke to Fox News

01:48and said that the sanctions were given the go ahead by Donald Trump because Putin wasn't honest and

01:54forthright with the U.S. in discussions, adding that Trump was, quote, disappointed at where we are

02:00in these talks. Now, this might not be the only package of sanctions that we're going to see on

02:07Russia. There is also a bill making its way through the Senate, led by Senator Lindsey Graham, that is

02:12also looking to levy steep sanctions on Russia. And that has dozens of sponsors on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers

02:17are really just waiting for the go ahead from the White House to bring that bill up for a vote. Donald Trump

02:23has been asked about it in the past, but he is yet to give the green light on that package. Whether that will now

02:27go ahead due to Donald Trump's seeming annoyance out of Vladimir Putin here remains to be seen.

02:34And Fraser, this all comes as the NATO Secretary General is about to hold talks with Donald Trump. He's currently

02:39in Washington. Any coincidence there? What exactly is Mark Rutte expected to address with Donald Trump?

02:44Yeah, we're expecting to see Mark Rutte with

02:49Donald Trump and to hear from the Secretary General of NATO as well. Donald Trump's praise is being sung

02:55by Rutte while he was on Capitol Hill earlier in the day. Rutte is saying that Trump is the only man

03:00who can, Donald Trump is the only man who can get this peace deal done. He did, however, play down

03:05claims that this meeting with Trump was a result of President Zelensky's fractious meeting that took

03:11place in the Oval Office last Friday. He said that this was a meeting that had been planned before,

03:16saying that he was texting with the President after what he called an enormous success in Gaza and said,

03:21hey, let's have a meeting in Washington to discuss how we can now deliver this kind of vision

03:25in Ukraine. So Mark Rutte here trying to kind of get Donald Trump back on side, as it were,

03:30after that meeting that we know did not go the way that Zelensky wanted. He did not get the Tomahawk

03:35missiles and Donald Trump even repeating some of the Kremlin talking points to Zelensky.

03:41And we know that rattled some cages in Europe once Zelensky debriefed European leaders on that

03:47meeting that he had with Donald Trump. So Rutte here will be trying to get the President back on

03:51side and try to get him back to the position he was just a month ago when he believed that Ukraine

03:56could win this war with the help of NATO. Fraser, thanks so much for that. That is Fraser Jackson,

04:02our correspondent joining us live there from Washington.

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