Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the US should place 'even greater costs on Putin' over Russian-Ukraine conflict

Hillary Clinton said on Sunday Russia should be shunned from international organizations.
"I would not allow Russia back into the organizations that it has been a part of," she said on NBC News.
The former secretary of state added that the US should "impose even greater costs on Putin."

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday said that Russia should not be permitted to remain a part of leading intergovernmental organizations, arguing that the US should "impose even greater costs" on Russian President Vladimir Putin as punishment for invading Ukraine.

During an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," the former first lady and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee told host Chuck Todd that the upcoming G20 summit in November should be off limits to Russia.

"I would not allow Russia back into the organizations that it has been a part of," she said. "I think there is an upcoming G20 event later in the year. I would not permit Russia to attend."

She emphasized: "If they insisted on literally showing up, I would hope there would be a significant, if not total, boycott. The only way that we're going to end the bloodshed and the terror that we're seeing unleashed in Ukraine and protect Europe and democracy, is to do everything we can to impose even greater costs on Putin."

Clinton stressed that there were an array of tools that could be employed to deepen the economic strain on Russia's economy, pointing to the country's oil exports to nations around the world.

"There are more banks that can be sanctioned and taken out of the so-called SWIFT relationship," she said. "There is an increasing call for doing more on gas and oil. Now, obviously, some of our strongest allies in Europe are desperately trying to get out from under their dependence upon Russian energy."

She added: "We need to expedite. And I know the [Biden] administration has been doing that, looking at more deliveries of liquefied natural gas, for instance. So I think now is the time to double down on the pressure."

In February, the US, Canada, and its European allies agreed to block "selected" Russian banks from SWIFT, the dominant system for global financial transactions.

Clinton — who served as the nation's top diplomat from 2009 to 2013 under then-President Barack Obama — agreed with current Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that the US would continue to back Ukrainian efforts against Russian forces "as they try to figure out what for them is the best way forward."

"I think, is exactly the right position for the United States, Europe, and the West, and other countries to take," she said.

She added: "Let's focus on what we're doing right now to help protect and defend the Ukrainian people's right to be a free, democratic nation and protect their sovereignty."

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