By Trevor Hunnicutt, Jeff Mason and Andrea Shalal
President Joe Biden’s strategy in grappling with the domestic fallout from gasoline price increases is for Americans to direct their anger at one man: Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Biden and his administration have coalesced around the phrase “Putin price hike” to describe the energy inflation challenges created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and retaliatory Western sanctions.
“I’m going to do everything I can to minimize Putin’s price hike here at home,” Biden said in a Twitter post on Tuesday.
Already battling inflation at a 40-year high, Biden on Tuesday imposed a ban on U.S. imports of Russian oil, adding pressure to crude prices holding near a 14-year peak.
The move is likely to drive up U.S. pump prices that have already risen past $4-per-gallon in many places. This stands to pose a political problem for the Democratic president, one Republicans are eager to seize on ahead of November midterm elections in which control of Congress is at stake.
