Ukraine: Indian-American Advisor to Biden Says Sanctions Making Putin Desperate

In an interview to CBS News' 60 Minutes, Daleep Singh called Putin a "brutal tyrant".

Daleep Singh. 

(Photo Courtesy: screenshot from CBS interview)

In an interview to CBS News' 60 Minutes, Indian-American Daleep Singh, who is the deputy national security adviser to the Joe Biden government for international economics, stated that people in the Kremlin are "taking some desperate measures" in response to the sanctions that have been imposed on them by several countries.

As a punitive response to the invasion of Ukraine, the United States (US), the United Kingdom, the European Union, Japan, and Australia, among other nations, have sanctioned the Russian President Vladimir Putin along with officials of his government and the oligarchs that are close to him.

When asked about what type of "desperate measures" Putin is taking, Singh gives the examples of capital controls, that is, "preventing people within Russia from taking foreign currency out," as he himself said to Sharyn Alfonsi, the correspondent who was interviewing him.

"I think it's a desperate move. He's self-isolating his economy. Russia is now on the fast track to a 1980s-style Soviet living standard. It's looking into an economic abyss, and that is the result of Putin's choices and I can see from his reaction that's where it's headed," Singh added.

When asked about whether sanctions will push Putin into a corner with nowhere to go, Singh said that it's impossible to read Putin's mind.

"He's a brutal tyrant. All we can control, all we can ensure is that this will be a strategic failure for Putin."

Singh defined strategic failure as "his ability to project power and exert influence are fundamentally downgraded."

You can read Daleep Singh's profile here.