Liberal

Piemonte: Obama needs to take stronger measures against Russia

As each day passes, the current global political landscape is getting more and more threatening.  Russia continues to show no signs of changing its plans in Crimea and it’s looking like the U.S. will have to be the one to intervene.

On Thursday last week, President Barack Obama announced he would be increasing sanctions on Russian officials and the country as a whole.  The new sanctions expand upon those already placed on 11 Russian citizens the US deemed to be directly involved in the dispute.

While the secondary measures were obviously necessary, Obama may not have gone far enough.

Both rounds of the economic punishments combine to target a total of 20 members of Russia’s political elite, including President Vladimir Putin’s Chief of Staff.  ABC News reported on March 20 these individuals “will have assets frozen in the United States, will be barred from doing any business in the U.S. and will be unable to make transactions in American dollars.”

In addition, the U.S. has also targeted Bank Rossiya, a Russian bank.  Yuri Kovalchuk, a man many consider to be Putin’s personal banker, owns Bank Rossiya.



The trend here is clearly that this round of sanctions was designed to land near the heart of Putin’s camp.  Direct measures against Putin remain highly unlikely, but the overtones here are hard to miss.  By choosing his targets the way he did, Obama has made an effort to inform Putin that should Russia’s actions continue, there will be repercussions that are likely to affect the Russian president directly.

ABC reports that despite the U.S.’s refusal to acknowledge the annexation of Crimea, officials privately say that Russia is unlikely to give up the territory.  The focus is now on preventing any further incursions into Ukraine.  “The world is watching with grave concern as Russia has positioned its military in a way that could lead to further incursions into southern and eastern Ukraine,” Obama said in his conference on Thursday.

In a scenario reminiscent of the Cold War, Obama and other world leaders are understandably reluctant to take any kind of military action against Russia.  Due to this, the sanctions to this point have aimed to put economic stress on a country that is not well equipped to deal with it.

The concern is that while the sanctions were strengthened by Obama’s announcement, they still may not be enough to stop Putin and his officials.  Thus far, the Russian government hasn’t batted an eye at the punitive measures enacted by the U.S. and the European Union.  In order to halt Russia’s unlawful actions, more dire consequences may need to be brought about.

Obama is traveling to Europe next week where he will meet with officials from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan to form an impromptu G7 Summit.  Presumably this meeting will be centered on how best to proceed concerning Russia.

The EU has also announced additional sanctions, should Putin continue to ignore the law.  German chancellor Angela Merkel informed the German parliament that the EU is prepared to ramp up economic sanctions if necessary.  As Obama said in his conference Thursday, “Russia must know that further escalation will only isolate it further from the international community.”

History shows that this situation must be dealt with swiftly and strongly.  Allowing Russia to continue amidst mere threats will do nothing but enable them; actions must follow the words.  Hopefully Obama and the EU can handle Russia before the situation gets out of hand.

Chris Piemonte is a senior political philosophy major. He can be reached at [email protected].

 





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