In his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Jan. 16, hedge fund owner Scott Bessent said that he favored increasing sanctions against Russian oil, calling out the Biden administration for being soft on the matter. “I think if any officials in the Russian Federation are watching this confirmation hearing, they should know that if I’m confirmed, and if President Trump requests as part of his strategy to end the Ukraine war, I will be 100 per cent on board for taking sanctions up, especially on the Russian oil majors, to levels that would bring the Russian Federation to the table,” Bessent stated, adding that current sanctions are “not fulsome enough.”
Bessent, a long-time partner at Soros Fund Management, also waxed rhetorical against China, calling it “the most imbalanced, unbalanced economy in the history of the world,” which is trying to export its way out of a “severe recession/depression”—a rather laughable claim in light of China’s strong economic growth in recent years, as compared to the U.S.’s collapse.