Preview Of Joe Biden’s Speech on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine – Opinion

In an hour or three, our intrepid president, Joe Biden, will stumble behind a lectern in the White House and address the nation on what he intends to do about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (Putin Officially Launches a Full Invasion of Ukraine, Lodges Disturbing New Threats Against the West).

Following a Munich security conference where Kamala Houston, our homegrown Sun Tzu was featured, Vladimir Putin recognised the independence of Donetsk, and Luhansk, two rebel (Vladimir Putin Rules the Ukraine Table and Makes Joe Biden a Feckless And Unreliable Security Partner). To support Russian troops already in the region for over a decade, he ordered Russian peacekeepers to be sent into these newly formed states.

Biden presented a very weak program of sanctions in response to Putin’s attempt to test the waters. He targeted five Russian ships (which never seem to have traveled to America), three Russian oligarchs (who appear to have already been under sanctions, two Russian banks (one without a commercial presence and one which has been under sanctions since 2014), and he limited the ability of Russia to sell sovereign debt created after March 1 (if you have a calendar, you’ll see that is next week). These sanctions only apply to direct dealings with US companies and banks; they don’t apply to any other country. For more information, see Potemkin Sanctions By a Potemkin Presidential; A Bank Sanctioned In 2014 by Biden

Joey SoftServe will likely announce more sanctions. The question now is how these sanctions will look. Will they be real (okay, I’m joking), or will they be more blue smoke and mirrors designed to look like action was taken while still avoiding actions. I’ll credit Marshall Billingslea,  Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing in the Trump Treasury department, for this list. These are the worst sanctions, ranked in order of severity. This list includes even the most serious options.

• It is necessary to sanction the Russian Central Bank.
• Instead of a few banks, sanction the entire financial sector.
• SWIFT Ban Russia
• Other export industries (minerals, lumber) can be sanctioned
• Impose full export controls
• Putin is the one who was sanctioned.
• All major oligarchs must be sanctioned
• You must pay for oil and natural gas in blocked escrow accounts that are not held by Russian financial institutions.

The junta has apparently placed sanctioning of Russia’s energy sector off-limits because it is afraid of the blowback.

(Reuters) – The Biden administration is not expected to target Russia’s crude oil and refined fuel sector with sanctions cutting off trade, due to concerns about inflation and the harm it could do to its European allies, global oil markets and U.S. consumers, officials say.

— Phil Stewart (@phildstewart) February 23, 2022

I’d add one of my own, any sanction that does not involve secondary sanctions can be written off as eyewash. It is absurd to impose restrictions on US companies that deal with Russia, while permitting Russia to treat with impunity with China and Switzerland.

My forecast is that we shouldn’t get our hopes up. American weakness is a feature, not a bug, of Biden’s foreign policy. Russia will eventually do whatever it wants, as Joe Biden eats ice cream while daydreaming about hot summer days with his children braiding his legs at the swimming pool.