State Department: Russia Should ‘Build Back Better’

A senior State Department official said Tuesday that Russia should focus on “building back better” at home instead of menacing Ukraine, in a peculiar rhetorical bid to persuade Moscow to back down from its military threats.

“At a time when Covid is running rampant again across Russia as it is in other places, and where only half the population is vaccinated, the Kremlin has to justify to the Russian people why it is stoking a potentially very bloody conflict for Russia, rather than focusing on its own citizens’ health and on Russia’s own significant challenges in building back better,” said Victoria Nuland, the under secretary of state for political affairs, using the name for the Biden administration’s own domestic-policy agenda that’s stalled in Congress.

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Jimmy Quinn

Jimmy Quinn is the former national security correspondent for National Review.

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A senior State Department official said Tuesday that Russia should focus on “building back better” at home instead of menacing Ukraine, in a peculiar rhetorical bid to persuade Moscow to back down from its military threats.

“At a time when Covid is running rampant again across Russia as it is in other places, and where only half the population is vaccinated, the Kremlin has to justify to the Russian people why it is stoking a potentially very bloody conflict for Russia, rather than focusing on its own citizens’ health and on Russia’s own significant challenges in building back better,” said Victoria Nuland, the under secretary of state for political affairs, using the name for the Biden administration’s own domestic-policy agenda that’s stalled in Congress.