White House press secretary Jen Psaki has responded to a question on whether actions taken against Russia over the attack on Ukraine could encourage US domestic terrorism, by calling the proposition “interesting and scary.”
Joe Biden’s top spokesperson was answering a question in her daily briefing from The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg, who pointed out that reporting had shown that “white supremacists and other domestic extremists had developed an affinity for Russia.”
And he asked whether as the Russian economy continued to “downgrade” if the Biden administration was concerned that Moscow “might try to inspire domestic extremists and domestic terrorists to commit acts of violence” on American soil.
“It’s an interesting and scary question. I don’t have any prediction or assessment of that, nor have I heard a prediction or assessment of that from our national security experts or the Department of Homeland Security,” said Ms Psaki.
During her Wednesday briefing, Ms Psaki also warned that there would be more examples of Russian troops killing civilians, as seen in the town of Bucha.
“Their goal remains weakening Ukraine as much as possible. And we should be under no illusion that that objective hasn’t changed even as their tactics have changed,” she said.
She also addressed the latest round of US sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s adult children, Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova, and said that US officials believed they were used to hide their father’s money.
“We’ve seen attempts and efforts to stash assets in the accounts and resources of his children,” Ms Psaki said.
And she added: “What we do know is that because of the impact of the economic sanctions, including the ones we have taken today, and steps we’ve taken over the course of time, we have seen an unquestionable, significant impact. on Russia’s economy.
“Russia is set to lose its status as a major economy. And our objective is to implement those consequences to make it much more difficult for President Putin to fund the war. And we’re seeing the direct impacts of that already.”
