capital and white house correspondent kevin court. kevin, hello. good morning, trace. president biden says the u.s. and its allies, as you pointed out, are trying to do something to really hit russia where it hurts in this case revoking their most favored nation trade status and yet another blow to the russian economy. and this is a major item because we re talking about things that you might want to buy from russia like seafood and vodka and diamonds. all those imports would be hit by sanctions. the sanctions, by the way, the latest in a series of economic measures against the kremlin that include an oil ban and a tax penalty initiative announced friday by senate finance committee chair ron wyden of oregon. meanwhile, the white house for its part continues to insist that soaring inflation and fast rising gas prices are not repeat are not the result of biden energy policies. rather, they argue it s the kremlin s fault through the
have to take it seriously. a lot of boards and ceo are caught in this mindset of 1990, of one big happy family, we ve got these brands of freedom and liberation, not now there is no middle ground here. this gets you had on here, james elder, such a an angel. cairo is not able to breakthrough his russian father with what s going on. we ve got this vicious, trying, tickle bloody billy on one hand. and these innocent victims. that have been shelled in their homes and is nothing wrong of civilians, there s nothing wrong, but some of these are still trying to find the gray in what is truly a black and white situation. heather, i read your column today, and it is scary. we know that russia s economy is crumbling. but you write that even without the oil ban, we thing europe is likely to slip into recession.
despite this growing call from congress to shift a little bit. put it bluntly, is zelensky wasting his time asking for these things? we recognize there s a range of bipartisan calls. what we have the responsibility to do here is to assess what the impact is on the united states. martha: translate that for us, marc. yep. zelensky is not wasting his time. this is going to be a history-making address. i don t think a world leader has ever called in from a besieged capitol in a war zone to address congress and the american people. he s right to press. he needs to press. everything that joe biden has been done he was dragged into. he was dragged into providing the stingers and the swift sanctions, dragged into the oil ban which he didn t want to do and it s not even sanctions. and he s still refusing to provide the migs. so he needs to speak up boldly and put pressure on biden to do the right thing. martha: we ll be watching,
courtney kube, matt bradley, garrett haake, and we re also joined by brian sullivan who is watching the energy industry for cnbc. and we re watching the very latest this hour. first as mentioned, poland saying that it is ready. not that it has, but it is ready to transfer its mig fighter jets to a u.s. base in germany. jets that ukraine s president has been begging for. he got a standing ovation after invoking churchill in a defiant speech to the british parliament. president zelenskyy pushing the west do more to help. and then there is the russia oil ban, announced by president biden that the u.s. will cut off all imports of russian oil which might bite your budget a little bit. national average for a gavel gas is at an all-time high. courtney, i think the question people have, okay, ukraine wants these jets so why is poland send them to an air base in germany rather than to ukraine directly? do we have an answer yet?
peter alexander. putin s war, putin s war has caused enormous suffering and needless loss of life. putin seems determined to continue on his murderous path no matter the cost. he s already turned 2 million ukrainians into refugees. ukraine will never be a victory for putin. putin may be able to take a city but he ll never be able to hold the country. so, talk to us about the oil ban that he is announcing. almost unilaterally because the brits are doing it but in a delayed phase and the rest of europe not complying. doing this under considerable pressure because there s a bipartisan agreement in congress and they re about to pass legislation. reporter: you re absolutely right. the bipartisan agreement turned up the heat on president biden to make this announcement, even though the president will act unilaterally without congress. i think the language you played