Russia is waking up to sanctions. The West must not stop here
Some Excerpts:
Now that Russian President Vladimir Putin has embarked on his crusade to eradicate a neighboring democracy and subdue its proud and fearless people, the goal of the rest of the democratic world should be to make him feel the full pain of this miscalculated endeavor.
It's unclear whether Putin has an exit strategy. It is time for the West to force one upon him, tightening the screws on all Russian banks, airspace and the cushy foreign assets of its oligarchs.
Putin’s arms-length meetings with his national security team
If the world's democracies want to bring Russia's invasion to a swift closure, it must inflict the kind of economic pain that forces the Kremlin to stop the war......
Already, many of Putin's long-time relationships abroad are at risk of deteriorating. China's Xi Jinping, who welcomed Putin to Beijing for the winter Olympics and signed an agreement for a 30-year supply of natural gas to China, with payment in euros, may be having second thoughts......China has too much at stake in trade and finance in the United States and Europe to risk backing a losing side in this battle.....
The international community, while having enacted some measures, must keep up the collective pressure.....
There are more screws to be tightened, though the West must be prepared to suffer consequences that even at their worst are hardly what the people of Ukraine are enduring today. Oil and natural gas are the foundations of Russian power and national wealth. Yet so far, neither has been subject to any sanctions. Embargoes on Russian oil would certainly get Putin's attention....
In an odd way, Putin has accomplished what decades of his efforts and those of his admirers abroad have failed to do: He has succeeded in uniting a previously fractured Europe and Atlantic alliance. While it is far from clear how definitively the long-divergent trends between Europe and America can be sustained, he has nonetheless demonstrated most effectively, if inadvertently, the power of democracy and the democratic spirit. And that in itself is something to be sustained at all costs.