As the two-year anniversary of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine approaches, we must not forget that President Biden legacy is his failure to uphold the United States’ decades-long objective in Europe: to deter and prevent Russia from launching a full-scale invasion of Europe. From halting Nord Stream 2 sanctions to blocking military aid packages, Biden’s weakness invited Putin’s war.

The last two years have not been any better. President Biden has failed to lead the West and successfully prosecute the war toward victory. For two years, Biden has delayed, downgraded, or outright blocked the delivery of critical weapons Ukraine needs to win the war.

--Read our FACTSHEET on how Biden’s refusals to arm Ukraine cost thousands of lives.–

Two years into the war, Biden is still pondering whether to send Ukraine long-range missiles. No wonder Ukraine hasn’t made large gains lately. Only through repeated pressure from conservative leadership in Congress has the Biden administration sent the right weapons.

The sanctions and export controls placed against Russia have been so watered down that Russia is richer today than before the start of the war. Thanks in part to Biden’s war against American energy, Russia is making more money from oil sales than at any point in the year before the war, allowing Putin to increase Russia’s military spending despite two years of sanctions.

In the first 10 months of 2023, Russia was able to import $8.8 billion in “priority battlefield goods”, only 10% lower than before Biden’s sanctions, and imported $22.2 billion worth of military-related items, higher than before Biden’s sanctions.

Economic pressure was supposed to force Putin to back down and degrade the Russian war machine. The reverse has happened. It’s a far cry from Biden’s promises at the start of the war. 

Administration Claim: On April 6, 2022, President Biden said “The steps we’re already taken are predicted to shrink Russia’s gross domestic product by double-digits this year alone.”

• Reality: Russia’s economy only shrunk 2.2% in 2022. It increased 3.6% in 2023, including a 5.5 increase in Q4 of 2023.
• Meanwhile: The IMF projects the Russian economy will GROW another 2.6% in 2024. The Eurozone is only set to grow 0.9% while the CBO projects U.S. GDP will grow only 1.5%.

Administration Claim: Biden tweeted on March 26, 2022, that Russia’s economy would shrink by half in the coming years. The White House claimed Putin’s war would wipe out the last 15 years of economic gains in Russia.

• Reality: At the 2022 rate of economic growth, it would take 31 years for Russia’s economy to shrink in half, and 13 years to wipe out the last 15 years of economic gains. 
• Meanwhile: At the 2023 and 2024 rates of growth, that would never happen because that’s not how math works.

Administration Claim: Last year, Treasury officials bragged that Putin was struggling to finance his war and is taking drastic measures to keep his economy afloat.

• Reality: Russia ran a 2.3% budget deficit in 2022, decreasing to 2.0% in 2023 and a planned 0.8% deficit in 2024. They have had little problems selling bonds, they increased their military budget by 40% in 2023 and plan for another 9% increase in 2024.
• Meanwhile: The U.S. budget deficit in 2022 was 5.9%, while our Debt-to-GDP ratio is far higher than that of Russia or China.

How did this happen? Because the Biden Administration has refused to unleash American energy production to replace Russian exports. Instead, he caved to TikTok activists and banned LNG exports to Europe that Biden once promisedwould to replace Russian LNG. Even President Obama’s National Security Advisor called the move “a boost to Vladimir Putin”.

--Read our FACTSHEET on how Biden put Putin first and Americans last with his LNG ban.–

The White House has repeatedly opposed lowering the price cap on Russian oil exports, guaranteeing that Russia can keep making billions in oil revenue, and keeps extending sanctions waivers to Russian banks that allow Putin’s war machine to keep churning.

Now, the administration is trying to shift blame on to Congressional Republicans for the failures of the war. No one should be fooled.

Let’s review some of President Biden’s pro-Putin policies he could reverse immediately.

• Biden refuses to sanction over 300 Russian banks. He has the authority to sanction every single one of them today and sanction the entire Russian banking and financial sector.

• Biden refuses to sanction Russia’s tech sector, their diamond sector, their nuclear export industry (Rosatom) and most of their metals and minerals industries.

  • The United States can issue short wind-down licenses for companies temporarily needing to purchase certain metals or wrap up sensitive projects.

• Biden refuses to sanction several Russian oligarchs who hold much of Russia’s wealth and support Putin’s policies. The Biden Administration has barely sanctioned any oligarchs in over a year and done little to seize their assets abroad. Biden could set up a special interagency office to locate, prosecute, and seize Russian and Iranian assets abroad.

• Biden should use frozen Russian foreign currency reservesto immediately fund Ukrainian reconstruction and economic stability.

  • More than $300B of Russian Central Bank assets are frozen. Under international law there is a legal basis for transferring these reserves to Ukraine. Biden should encourage European countries to use their frozen Russian funds to support Ukraine as well.

• On February 18, 2021, President Biden reversed President Trump’s policy and immediately removed UN sanctions on Iranian conventional arms exports to Russia (and elsewhere). 

  • This policy also led to UN sanctions on Iranian drone and ballistic missile exports to Russia (and elsewhere) expiring on October 18, 2023.
  • Biden can work with Europe to reimpose all these sanctions on Iran and they would automatically return in 30 days even against Chinese and Russian opposition.

• Biden could send Ukraine ATACMS long-range surface-to-surface missiles under a Pentagon drawdown authority that doesn’t cost taxpayers a dollar.

  • Ukraine needs ATACMS to hit logistics sites and headquarters inside Ukraine that Russia uses as their base of offensive operations.
  • The Pentagon has a stockpile of ATACMS that can be provided to Ukraine – meanwhile the U.S. should rapidly expand our production of ATACMS and other missiles that can deter China and win that war if it comes.
  • Biden needs to stop dragging his feet and increase the supply of cluster munitions, tanks, and F-16s in sufficient quantities to make a difference.