Tuberville: ‘Russia Is a One-Trick Pony’

Wednesday on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) weighed in on the tension between Ukraine and Russia.

Tuberville called on Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to meet to put an end to the standoff.

“I’d like to know where Vladimir Putin stands,” Tuberville said. “I’d like to know what we are working with him on trying to resolve this without you thousands and thousands of people killed. Why don’t we get President Zelensky — who I met with five months ago in Kyiv — get these people together. Let them talk it out. Let them figure this out. Putin doesn’t want to get his people killed. It is going to fall back on him. He is pushing us to the limit, but we don’t need this fight. This is not our fight. This is the fight for Ukraine. They need to fight their own fight.”

Tuberville described Russia as “a one-trick pony” for holding onto the Nord Stream 2 pipeline for power over Germany. He emphasized the importance of getting President Joe Biden to sanction Russia to help end the standoff.

“Russia is a one-trick pony,” he declared. “They have energy, and they can sell energy to prop up their economy. They have the pipeline running down the Baltic Sea — actually, it’s two pipelines coming from two different cities running into Germany, but President Trump tried to get Germany to back out of this; they wouldn’t do it. We can’t get them to firmly say, ‘No more Nord Stream if they come into Ukraine.’ All they’ve got to do is say that. President Biden has actually said that.”

Tuberville continued, “But right now, we need to say there are sanctions on the certification of the pipeline as we speak. There are sanctions on insurance companies on the pipeline as we speak. You are not going to be able to get it certified or insured. You’re not going to be able to prop it up. You’re not going to be able to send that oil. That is what they believe in. Everything else is kind of fodder around, but we can’t get Germany to fall in line. President Biden has actually said, and I couldn’t believe he said it, that there will be no more Nord Stream 2. I hope we can hold to him that. I think Putin is starting to listen a little bit. I don’t think he wants to go into Ukraine. He has nothing to earn out of this. I think it’s all going to backfire on him, but we will have to wait and see what happens.”

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent