White House Warns of "Additional Actions" against Russia

The White House said Friday that U.S is going to reserve option of putting in place consequences against Russia if their actions warrant.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki stated that they want to move to a more stable and predictable place with Russia.

Nonetheless, she affirmed that when they announced sanctions, "they left in their maximum optionality to put in place additional actions should their actions warrant."

"No one wants to get to that point, but we reserve that right should we decide it’s warranted," the press secretary asserted.

Moreover, Psaki told reporters that meeting between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin in June is not “locked in yet.”

She pointed out that discussions of a potential meeting next month in Europe is still at the “staff level about what it might look like, where, the timing, the components of an agenda, those are still ongoing.”

The press secretary noted that Biden invited Putin to a bilateral meeting in a third country “because he thinks it would be a good step forward in the relationship to de-escalate, to ensure we have a more stable relationship moving forward.”

These statements come shortly after Biden told reporters at the White House he is “confident” the June meeting with Putin will occur.

Biden stressed that he wanted to meet Putin despite Russia's build-up of military forces near Ukraine.

The president said: "I'm confident we'll be able to do it. We don't have any specific time or place. That's being worked on."

"It does not impact my desire to have a one-on-one meeting and you'll notice he had more troops before. He's withdrawn troops," he added.