The media and halls of Congress are full of
talk about economic sanctions, talk of plans to impose American
sanctions against Russia. Sanctions
are in the cards for some Russians who are deemed responsible (or not) for ‘something’ in Crimea, but guess what? The man who ordered
the troops into Crimea will not be sanctioned. Putin is not being
sanctioned, just some hapless underlings. Now how do you spell h-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y in русский язык?
There are some stronger threats from U.S. law-makers (a few of them like Senator Bob Menendez are also suspected of allegedly being law breakers themselves) to impose tougher sanctions on Russia and on (former) Ukrainian officials. But not on Putin. On the senate floor, Senator McCain even expressed a burning desire to ban select Russians from going to Las Vegas. LasFuckingVegas? That is what he said (minus the expletive). Is that the best these august men can come up with? And what happened to the wonders of unfettered unregulated unsanctioned free markets?
Europeans are deemed too hesitant, considered wimpy by U.S. senators and Obama bureaucrats already tested and blooded in the battles for media sound bites and in the battles of other sanctions. The EU itself is almost certainly threatening more punishment than it is willing to actually apply.
Just think of the company (some) Russians will be keeping among the targets of Western sanctions: Cuba, Iran, Syria, Iraq (once), Lebanon (a big chunk of it anyway), Russia, North Korea. A gaggle of West African leaders and warlords. Probably others I can’t recall.
And suppose India and China and Pakistan and Indonesia and Brazil and Argentina and Algeria and Egypt and several other countries refuse to respect these expanded Western global sanctions? Which they almost certainly will. Would new sanctions be applied to these countries as well? Then will we have two worlds? Those sanctioned by the Western Powers and those not sanctioned by Western Powers? And how will this impact the love affair between extremely patriotic U.S. corporations and cheap Chinese (and Indian) labor and possibly Russian oligarchs, among others?
And if half the world is ‘sanctioned’ how does this affect the effectiveness of the sanctions being bandied about?
Cheers
mhg