After receiving a sanction from Russia earlier this week, U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney told Cowboy State Daily on Friday that the rebuke was a “badge of honor.”
On Wednesday, Russia announced sanctions against 398 members of Congress, including Cheney, that are intended to act as a “mirror” to President Biden’s sanctions against the Russian officials and oligarchs last month.
“It’s a badge of honor to be sanctioned by the Putin regime. America stands with the people of Ukraine who are fighting for freedom,” Cheney told Cowboy State Daily on Friday.
The U.S. Treasury Department last month sanctioned 328 members of Russia’s parliament in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.
In response, Russia announced its own sanctions preventing the Americans from entering Russia.
“These persons, including the leadership and chairmen of the committees of the lower house of the US Congress, are included in the Russian ‘stop list’ on an ongoing basis,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
Other congressional members such as U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado and Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, were among those targeted with sanctions.
Last week, Cheney said Putin was engaged in a “genocidal campaign” against the Ukrainian people and called on the Biden administration to put its efforts into helping Ukraine defeat the Russian forces invading the country.
She said delivering both offensive weapons, such as tanks and planes, and defense systems such as anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine would be appropriate during Russa’s war on that country, which she referred to as a “genocide.”
“I think we need to do everything that (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy says he needs at this point, given the unbelievable battle that they have put up,” she said on Sunday. “I think this clearly is genocide. I think Europe needs to understand and grapple with the fact that you’ve got a genocidal campaign that we’ve seen in recent decades.”
She has also called on the ban on the import of Russian uranium and is spearheading an effort to create a uranium reserve.
