Russian President Vladimir Putin has invaded Europe three times in the past 14 years. He attacked Georgia in 2008 and invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea in 2014. In 2008, the United States did little more than a “smack on the wrist” to Russia. In 2“014, sanctions were imposed. Each action had little resonance over Putin’s behavior. Now, after Putin’s latest invasion of Ukraine, President Joe Biden is recycling ineffective strategies from a failed playbook that has repeatedly proven unsuccessful against Putin.
“Today, the United States, along with allies and partners, is imposing severe and immediate economic costs on Russia in response to Putin’s war of choice against Ukraine. Today’s actions include sweeping financial sanctions and stringent export controls that will have profound impact on Russia’s economy, financial system, and access to cutting-edge technology. The sanctions measures impose severe costs on Russia’s largest financial institutions and will further isolate Russia from the global financial system,” the White House announced on Feb. 24. “With today’s financial sanctions, we have now targeted all ten of Russia’s largest financial institutions, including the imposition of full blocking and correspondent and payable-through account sanctions, and debt and equity restrictions, on institutions holding nearly 80% of Russian banking sector assets.”
In reality, this translates to nothing but noise. It is geopolitical theater. They are the actions of a president that knows the only thing that will stop Putin is direct military confrontation but also cannot risk sending United States troops into Ukraine.
If sanctions did indeed work, as Biden and many of his defenders have said, history has proved the exact opposite. Otherwise, why does Putin keep replicating behaviors that warrant sanctions? It’s a simple question but not as simple as the answer: sanctions don’t intimidate Putin at all. He knows the West won’t risk war to defend Ukraine, and he is playing Biden and NATO as a result.
Meanwhile, Biden has apparently never heard the old maxim, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Either that or the significant level of incompetence that has haunted the Biden administration at every level since Jan. 20, 2021, is rearing its ugly head yet again.
Consider the sanctions and subsequent results after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014. First, after Putin ordered Russia to invade the Crimean Peninsula, the move was condemned by Ukraine, the international community, and NATO. The United Nations also condemned Russia’s actions and issued a resolution “affirming the territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.”
Sound familiar?
Subsequent exchanges between Russia and the world over this invasion almost mirror the actions of the 2022 invasion. The U.N. issued a resolution, Russia vetoed it. Sanctions were implemented that hurt Russia financially. Russia’s currency, the ruble, collapsed, and sanctions contributed to Russia’s financial crisis that year. However, Moscow endured, and Putin lived to act another day.
In 2014, the goal of sanctions for invading Ukraine was to cause Russia to withdraw, respect sovereign nations, and deter aggression. Given Russia’s actions from 2014, along with the most recent invasion of Ukraine last week, it is abundantly clear that sanctions against Putin do not work. Biden is deluding himself, the country, and the world if he thinks otherwise.
Three invasions of sovereign nations in 14 years by Putin; sanctions on Russia as a response each time. Putin does what he wants because he knows he can get away with it. Biden is repeating the same mistakes, and the history will continue to repeat itself. To revise a famous line by former President Barack Obama from the 2012 presidential debate: “2014 called, it wants its ineffective sanctions against Russia back.”
