Everyone Knows Sanctions Won’t Work On Russia
Unless you have been in a medically induced coma for the last week, you know that Russia invaded Ukraine. It came as a surprise to some, most notably the White House. It took a whole day for the President to address the nation. Biden laid out a plan to impose sanctions on Russia to punish it for violating Ukraine’s sovereignty in his remarks. It is a strategy that even his own aids doubt will work.
One of the reasons for this is that none of the sanctions currently target Russia’s energy sector. Oil and natural gas exports drive Russia’s economy, and ironically Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has caused the price of oil to skyrocket. Incredibly, the United States is purchasing Russian oil as of this writing.
It is hard to take the United States seriously when sending money to the country that just invaded Ukraine and watches as they use the money earned to sustain the campaign. All that has happened to this point is that we have shut down some of their banks. Even if the United States were to ban Russian imports, Europe would not follow suit because forty percent of its natural gas comes from Putin. Sanctions alone will do little to solve the problem.
Worse still, Putin has made veiled threats that some have interpreted to mean that if the United States intervenes, Russia could respond with a nuclear attack. After his speech, President Biden did not instill confidence in his response when asked about this.
Unfortunately for Ukraine, the Biden Administration is out of its league. The Russian President knows that sanctions are not enough to stop him, and so does the rest of the world. It is no surprise that Putin waited for Trump to leave the office to make his move. What is a surprise is how woefully unprepared Biden and his team are for something they have been predicting for months. The only question now is, can the world handle another three years of President Biden failing miserably?
Posts
