“President (Donald) Trump has made it very clear,” he said, adding that the U.S. will see “what happens when both sides get to the table.”
“What I can tell you is the sanctions were very ineffective during the Biden administration because they kept them low because they were afraid of pushing up domestic oil prices.”
Bessent refused to provide any timelines for possible new sanctions against Russia, saying that he is “not going to tie the president's hands in his negotiations.”
Earlier in the day, U.S. State Secretary Marco Rubio told CBS News that Washington would move forward with tougher sanctions against Russia if talks over a ceasefire in Ukraine fail to show meaningful progress.
On May 7, during a Congressional Finance Committee hearing, Bessent called Putin a “war criminal.”