Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill says Putin cares about being 'isolated' from world: 'He wants prestige'

• Rep. Mikie Sherrill said on Friday that Putin cared about being "isolated" from the world stage.
• During a discussion on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," she discussed sanctions being imposed on the country.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill — while discussing economic sanctions being imposed on Russia as a result of their invasion of Ukraine — said that Russian President Vladimir Putin cared about being "isolated" from the world stage.

During a Friday appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," the New Jersey Democrat — a former US Navy helicopter pilot and ex-federal prosecutor — said that the US is pressing Western allies to sanction Russia's vast oil reserves while continuing to employ other sanctions against the country.

"Certainly, we've seen the economic pressure we've placed on Russia have an impact on their economy, their banks," she said. "We're moving on other countries asking them to sanction oil and gas."

She continued: "But the problem is the disconnect. Does Putin even care about the people of Russia?"

When cohost Mika Brzezinski asked the congresswoman about the impact that Russia would actually feel from such measures, Sherrill stressed that the US continued to closely target people in Putin's orbit — as well as the leader himself — to essentially box the country into a corner.

"This is a conversation I just had with a member of my district from Iran talking about what sanctions look like within a country being sanctioned and who it impacts," the congresswoman said. "That's why we're working hard to target the oligarchs, why we're working hard to target Putin himself."

She added: "But there is a huge economic impact on the people of Russia and we're hoping that that has an impact. But Putin does not have a history of being particularly concerned about the Russian people. That said, what Putin does care about is being isolated from the world community. That really impacts him. He wants prestige. He wants power. And the more that we can isolate him and have him on an island, I do think that has an impact on him."

Russian billionaire Vladimir Lisin on Monday said that the ongoing threat of sanctions from the West — including those that have already been placed on the nation's upper crust — will have a severe impact on the Russian economy.

"Being forced into this reality is inevitably unsettling because sanctions are capable of destroying everything that had taken many years to create," he said, per an Insider translation of his interview with the Russian newspaper Kommersant.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, the US — along with the EU and the United Kingdom — have imposed an array of economic sanctions against Russia, Putin, and many individuals in the Russian leader's inner circle.