Biden Warns of ‘Real’ Food Shortages, Says Russia Sanctions Will Hurt Everybody

The president says the sanctions will be felt by an 'awful lot of countries'

On Thursday, President Biden warned that the US-led Western sanctions campaign against Russia will lead to “real” food shortages across the world.

“With regard to food shortage, yes, we did talk about food shortages. And — and it’s going to be real,” Biden said at a press conference in Brussels. “The price of these sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia, it’s imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country as well.”

Biden’s sanctions on Russia come as the US is facing a 40-year high inflation rate and record-high gas prices. Although he tried to blame the inflation on what he called “Putin’s price hike,” Biden has admitted before that Americans will feel economic pain because of the sanctions he imposed, which include a ban on Russian oil imports.

So far, the Western sanctions have done nothing to slow Russia’s attack on Ukraine and have not deterred Russian President Vladimir Putin. When confronted with this fact, Biden snapped at a reporter and said deterrence isn’t the point, and signaled that he expects the war to go on for a long time.

“Sanctions never deter. The maintenance of sanctions — the maintenance of sanctions, the increasing the pain, and the demonstration — why I asked for this NATO meeting today — is to be sure that after a month, we will sustain what we’re doing not just next month, the following month, but for the remainder of this entire year. That’s what will stop him,” he said.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.