Republicans push for tougher sanctions on Russia after Ukraine invasion

Republican lawmakers are pushing President Biden to take a tougher stance against Russia, urging the White House to impose even stricter financial sanctions on Moscow.

Although Biden pledged to make Russian President Vladimir Putin an international pariah with a raft of sanctions that are designed to cripple Moscow's economy, Republicans say the president did not go far enough. 

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"We’ve got to sanction not just Russian banks, not just Russian governmental officials, but we’ve got to sanction all the oligarchs and plutocrats who keep Putin in power and who have money hidden all over the world, including in the United States," Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana said, following Biden's White House speech. 

He added that the U.S. needs to cut Russia out of the SWIFT payment system, which allows for the transfers of money from bank to bank around the globe.

"What do we need to do now? We need to teach Putin about time travel and knock him into next week. I’m not talking about a war. I’m talking about expelling Putin, not just from international markets, but from the international community," Kennedy added. "We need to make him a pariah."

The penalties announced Thursday will target Russia's financial system by blocking assets of large Russian banks, impose export blocks on the technology and sanction the nation's ultra-wealthy business oligarchs.

"Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences," Biden said when laying out the sanctions, which he said would "impose severe cost on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time."

But the president notably omitted some of the most severe potential sanctions, including cutting off Moscow from the SWIFT payment system. 

"We’re all together at this point and we need to be together about what should be done," McConnell said. "But I have some advice: Ratchet the sanctions all the way up. Don’t hold any back."

It wasn't just Republicans who suggested Biden go further in moving against Putin — some Democrats also said the president need to do more. 

"There is more that we can and should do," said Sen Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. He also floated the possibility of removing Russia from the SWIFT system. "Congress and the Biden administration must not shy away from any options."

Biden announced the sanctions while military strikes and battles unfolded across Ukraine, with missile attacks and shelling by Russian forces targeting airfields and military depots. Dozens of Ukrainian soldiers and Russian troops were killed in the battle, as well as civilians. 

Ukraine’s minister of health, Viktor Lyashko, said preliminary reports suggested that 57 Ukrainians had been killed as a result of the attack, with close to 170 injured across the country.

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Biden acknowledged that the efforts to stop Putin could have a cost for Americans, who are already grappling with the hottest inflation in four decades. But he tried to assuage fears that gasoline prices will remain sky-high for long, and suggested the U.S. may release oil from its strategic reserve in order to reduce prices. (Brent Crude, the global benchmark, shot above $105 a barrel for the first time since 2014 on Thursday).

"My administration is using every tool at its disposal to protect American families and businesses from rising prices at the gas pump," Biden said. "You know, we're taking active steps to bring down the costs. And American oil and gas companies should not exploit this moment to hike their prices to raise profits."