December 18, 2014
COLUMN-Russia Sanctions: Beware the Blowback
In recent days, the U.S. Congress has moved aggressively to increase the economic pain inflicted on Russia in punishment for its brazen destabilization of easternUkraine and Crimea.
Legislators are attempting to up the ante with Moscow by passing new laws to penalize foreign banks and energy companies for doing business in several Russian economic sectors.
The desire to inflict more economic difficulty on Russia is understandable. By imposing pain on Russia, the United States and the European Union can try to force Moscow to change its aggressive behavior toward its neighbors.
But the new sanctions may not be as effective as Congress hopes, and President Barack Obama should be reluctant to enforce the penalties aggressively, as doing so would have serious consequences for the United States and its partners abroad.
Read the full op-ed at Reuters.
More from CNAS
-
Commentary
Defense / Transatlantic Security
Ukraine’s Catch-22 MomentThis article was originally published in the Financial Times. In Joseph Heller’s wartime classic, Catch-22, the protagonist Yossarian seeks out the US army surgeon Doc Daneeka...
By Franz-Stefan Gady
-
Commentary
Transatlantic Security / Middle East Security / Energy, Economics & Security
Sanctions Aren’t Enough to Shut Down the Moscow-Tehran Black Market for WarThe geographic scope and extent of Iranian-Russian cooperation highlights the failure of traditional sanctions to prevent Moscow and Tehran from seeking key components like ch...
By Delaney Soliday
-
What’s Driving President Trump’s New Confidence in Ukraine’s War Effort
Podcast
President Trump dramatically declared on social media that he now believes that Ukraine can reclaim all its land from Russia, which he described as a paper tiger. From the Ova...
By Richard Fontaine
-
‘The U.S. Has Got to Get Involved’: Townsend on NATO Boosting Polish Air Defences
Video
Jim Townsend, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, discusses what actions NATO countries need to take amidst Russia’s incursions of NATO airspace.W...
By Jim Townsend
