Joe’s Russian Sanctions Strangled?

We know Joe promised a “devastating” response to Russian dissident Navalny’s mysterious death, but don’t Biden’s announced “600 new sanctions” sound like they’ll make Putin laugh harder than ever at him & the USA?

The WSJ suggested as much when its coverage concluded the new “measures target Kremlin’s war machine” but are expected by US officials to “have limited short-term impact” on the architect of that machine. The latest move, of course, was in response to growing Western anger at Putin & Biden’s ineffective policies trying to reign him in … they mostly target “major financial institutions, government officials, business executives, shipping companies & manufactures” that help the Putin armies. The Biden Administration insists that, over time, these new measures will “strangle” the Russian war effort. Yet, as separate earlier coverage noted, Putin has largely re-engineered his economy to withstand if not defeat such “targeted” penalties, largely by making lucrative trade deals with the likes of China & Iran.

Well, that “strangulation by sanction” policy certainly hasn’t done much to get an American journalist freed from a Russian jail or stop Putin in Ukraine. And, WSJ argues, don’t count on that policy changing in an election year for fear of “the economic consequences of a full oil embargo against Russia” or the “risk of a tit-for-tat likely to result from seizing Russian assets. Hell, Joe can’t even get Congress to pass funding for more Ukrainian military aid.

Davd Soul