Putin Insulated Russia’s Economy. Will Biden’s Sanctions Hold Him Back in Ukraine?
President Vladimir V. Putin has learned from earlier U.S.-led sanctions, and his allies could benefit from a more isolated Russia.
WASHINGTON — When the Obama administration imposed sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine in 2014, American officials were hopeful they would deter President Vladimir V. Putin from further aggression.
Some of the officials argue today that the sanctions prevented Mr. Putin from ordering Russian forces beyond where they had halted on the Crimean Peninsula and in the eastern Donbas region. But Mr. Putin held on to Crimea. And on Monday, he ordered more troops into an insurgent-controlled area of eastern Ukraine where thousands of Russian soldiers have been operating and said the Kremlin was recognizing the enclaves as independent states.
Now, President Biden, who as vice president helped oversee Ukraine policy in 2014, has to weigh what sanctions might compel Mr. Putin to halt his new offensive, which the White House has judged to be an “invasion.” The White House is taking a step-by-step approach, trying to calibrate each tranche of measures to Mr. Putin’s actions.
“I’m going to begin to impose sanctions in response, far beyond the steps we and our allies and partners implemented in 2014,” Mr. Biden said on Tuesday in announcing a new set of sanctions. “And if Russia goes further with this invasion, we stand prepared to go further.”
But in my opinion, these sanctions will not work.
Joe Biden has already said the United States will defend every inch of NATO territory. And of course UKRAINE is NOT a part of NATO. Therefore the military option was taken off the table very early in the piece even though the reasoning for Russia being there is a concocted excuse.
These sanctions will not be the punch in the face that they want and sanctions have been used in the past and won't work because PUTIN doesn't care. And it will only slow down the sale of Russian oil and gas however there are other ways for Russia to sell their products.
Once again we are seeing what happens when a nation, and perhaps all of the "Western Nations" has weak leadership.
