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0000017a-3b40-d913-abfe-bf44a4f90000Howard Wilkinson joined the WVXU news team as the politics reporter and columnist in April 2012 , after 30 years of covering local, state and national politics for The Cincinnati Enquirer. On this page, you will find his weekly column, Politically Speaking; the Monday morning political chats with News Director Maryanne Zeleznik and other news coverage by Wilkinson. A native of Dayton, Ohio, Wilkinson has covered every Ohio gubernatorial race since 1974, as well as 16 presidential nominating conventions. Along with politics, Wilkinson also covered the 2001 Cincinnati race riots, the Lucasville prison riot in 1993, the Air Canada plane crash at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in 1983, and the 1997 Ohio River flooding. And, given his passion for baseball, you might even find some stories about the Cincinnati Reds here from time to time.

Portman: U.S. Sanctions Against Russia Not Effective Enough

Karen Kasler
/
Ohio Public Radio
Ohio's Republican Senator Rob Portman.

Ohio Senator Rob Portman says the United States' needs to consider new sanctions on Russia's government in order to change its behavior.

Portman, speaking to Ohio reporters in his weekly tele-conference, said the current sanctions are tough, but they allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to get away with too much. 

"I do think it is time to look at new sanctions on Russia and figure out how we can make them even more effective than the existing sanctions, which are the strongest sanctions we've had since the Cold War,'' Portman said. "But apparently they are not having the intended effect."

In his half-hour session with Ohio reporters, Ohio's junior senator said new sanctions would be justified "when you look at Russia continuing on the eastern border of the Ukraine a hot conflict; and what they have done in the Crimea and having not taken steps to stop that illegal annexation; and what they continue to do meddling in our election and other elections around the world."

On Monday, President Trump responded to Vladimir Putin's demands that sanctions against Russia be dropped by saying "sanctions on Russia will remain as is."

Portman, the former U.S. trade representative in the administration of President George W. Bush, put some distance between himself and President Trump on the trade and tariffs.

"On the trade issue, I do think we need to be tougher on China and countries that aren't playing by the rules, like China, for many, many years," Portman said. "We need to have some consequences, but I've also expressed serious concerned about the administration's trade policies – not being targeted enough and inviting enough, and therefore inviting unnecessary retaliation."

Howard Wilkinson is in his 50th year of covering politics on the local, state and national levels.