Biden to sanction Putin and Russian foreign minister

White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced Friday that President Biden will sanction Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Video transcript

- Earlier today agreed to hold-- to place sanctions and asset freezes on Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian foreign minister. Is the United States going to follow suit?

JEN PSAKI: Following a telephone conversation President Biden held with European Commission President Ursula Devin der Leyen and in alignment with the decision by our European allies, the United States will join them in sanctioning President Putin and foreign Minister Lavrov and members of the Russian national security team. I expect we'll have more specific details out later this afternoon.

- On sanctioning Putin and Lavrov, yesterday President Biden had said that was on the table. What changed between yesterday and today?

JEN PSAKI: Well, it has been under consideration and on the table for some time, as you know. And as I just conveyed, the President's strong view and strong principle from the beginning of this conflict, and even before, I should say, has been to take actions and steps in alignment with our European partners. And this is certainly evidence of that.

- And just finally on that one, what does sanctioning Putin himself do in the opinion of this administration? A lot of analysts have said that this is more of a symbolic move than anything.

JEN PSAKI: Well, without getting into any specific details-- I know you're not exactly asking me this, but sort of, about financial assets, et cetera. I will leave that to others to speak to. Certainly, the United-- the step that we are doing in alignment and in coordination with the Europeans just sends a clear message about the strength of the opposition to the actions by President Putin and the direction in his leadership of the Russian military.