“We have emphasized our preference to resolve this issue diplomatically, but we have to see concrete actions and not just words…So far, Russia has failed to take any of the steps that I have mentioned. In fact, Russia’s support for the separatists and violations of Ukraine’s sovereignty has continued.”
With those words to reporters last night in the White House briefing room, President Obama ratcheted up the sanctions against Russia for its role in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
The new measures target a number of large banks and defense firms. And they will restrict access to American debt markets for these companies.
The sanctions hit some of the biggest – and most powerful – in Russia.
They include Rosneft, the state-owned oil company and largest oil producer; Gazprombank, the financial arm of Gazprom, the giant state-controlled natural gas producer; Novatek, another Russian natural gas producer that has been competing with Gazprom; and VEB, the state economic development bank.
The administration also targeted eight state-owned defense firms; four Russian government officials, including an aide to President Vladimir V. Putin and a top official in the Federal Security Service; an oil shipping facility in Crimea, which Moscow annexed; a pro-Russian separatist leader; and the rump rebel organizations in the eastern Ukrainian cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.
While the administration worked with EU officials in designing these sanctions – and the EU is moving ahead with their own – the EU version will not be as severe according to American officials. EU dependence on Russian resources and business makes this discrepancy unsurprising and generally supports US and EU solidarity on the issue, even if I believe the EU should go further.
The sanctions came on the heels of an intelligence briefing wherein White House officials and EU ambassadors were shown evidence that Russia has yet to cut off the flow of fighters and arms across the Ukrainian border to pro-Russian separtists.
As four star Air Force General and NATO’s supreme allied commander for Europe Phil Breedlove argued in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, “Russia’s military actions inside and along Ukraine’s border exceed any definition of “defensive” and part with any reasonable understanding of what is militarily required to secure the border. The movement and positioning of Russian forces is also well beyond anything that could be called routine training.”
Breedlove writes that he remains hopeful that some political solution can be reached in this conflict and encourages NATO to adapt to Russia’s new – and clearly antagonistic – strategy.
And though I, too, believe that there is a potential political solution in the offing, Putin has shown time and time again that he does not take diplomatic overtures all that seriously.
It follows that these new, harsher sanctions show US commitment to hurting the Russian economy – perhaps the only thing that will get Putin’s attention. But it is important to consider that these sanctions aren’t aimed at disrupting the day-to-day business of the companies they target, thereby demonstrating that there is more we could do to hurt Russia without any military intervention.
Putin is not one to take this lightly and will surely have his own retaliatory measures.
We must be ready for this and to ratchet up the strength of the sanctions even further if need be. It may very well take disrupting the entire Russian economy to get Putin to back off – a risk we must be willing to take.
