Thomas-Greenfield says UN will ‘isolate’ Russia

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Sunday said that the United Nations could isolate Russia in an effort to penalize Moscow for their invasion of Ukraine. 

“We can isolate them in the United Nations. We can isolate them in UN specialized agencies. They are feeling that isolation,” Thomas-Greenfield said of Russia on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Thomas-Greenfield added that “we have a number of tools to put pressure on the Russians and we’re using all of those tools.”

Her remarks come after the U.S. and its allies kicked several Russian banks out of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) and vowed to impose measures that prevent the Russian Central Bank from using its reserves to undermine those sanctions.

“We hoped that the Russians would listen to the pressures that we were putting them under, but they didn’t, so they have to continue to continue to fill additional sanctions and additional pressures on their economy, and they will feel the pain,” she also said on NBC. 

Also on Sunday during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the ambassador said “there’s more to come” in terms of sanctions on Russia.

“While energy is not in this current announcement, it doesn’t mean it’s off the table, but we also want to do everything we can to protect our own economy from the impact of this,” she added on CNN after the Biden administration’s sanctions excluded Moscow’s energy sector.