Biden Takes the Toughest Sanctions for Russia off the Table – Opinion

Joe Biden doesn’t seem to know how to deal with the situation between Russia and Ukraine.

He seems to only increase tension between the two parties and push the dial further towards war.

By waiving the sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that helped Russia and increased EU dependency on Russian oil, he thrown Ukraine under the bus. This hurt both the United States of America and Ukraine.

Then Biden seemed to greenlight aggression with careless words, by saying U.S. troops would be off the table in December and then talking about “minor incursions” not causing a significant response in January, then having to scramble to clean that up.

Although he claims he will threaten the most severe sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine again, this strategy has some flaws. He’s not moving pro-actively to stop Putin first. He’s only threatening sanctions after Putin moves, as opposed to moving sanctions now to back Russia down from their threats. The sanctions will come too late, as the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zilensky stated. “If there’s a full-scale war tomorrow, why do we need sanctions afterward?” he asked. “I don’t think it’s fair.”

Biden’s administration threatens to hit Russian banks and government-owned businesses, as well as some imports, with sanctions. They claim that the threats would go further than any other actions taken against Russia in recent times.

According to Wall Street Journal, however:

According to one official, sanctions on Russia’s oil and natural-gas exports, or the disconnection of Russia from SWIFT are not currently under consideration. This is the infrastructure necessary for financial transactions between international banks.

In other words, the things that would hurt Russia where they lived aren’t being considered. And if we know this, then Russia knows they’re not on the table too.

I don’t get this. I don’t understand why you would advertise things as being off the table. This is what the Biden team has done. That’s basically what he’s doing, if the sanctions he flashes around have no real teeth. It was clear that Obama’s 2014 nominal sanctions worked.

Sanctions can have both upsides and disadvantages. Biden might have made it this way to please Germany which is now dependent upon its Russian oil. So, you don’t have all the NATO allies on the same page because Putin has already seduced Germany. If Biden is going to take things off the table, why doesn’t he just advertise to Putin: ‘Hey come on in, the water is fine’? Trump was to be the Putin loon. It’s really Biden who has bent over at every turn for Putin.

Zelensky claimed that Biden has been inciting panic by describing the threat so imminent. Zelensky says Biden must stop pushing fear-porn. While there’s a threat, he says, he doesn’t think it’s as desperate as Biden is painting it ,and Zelensky knows better than Biden what’s happening in his country.

Biden must reorient his position, bring all NATO members on the same page and fully support Ukraine. He should also impose significant sanctions immediately to help them. That’s what he should do. But he’s Biden, so don’t expect any move that makes sense.