October 13, 2022
Time to Unleash Congress on Putin
In response to Russia’s horrific invasion of Ukraine, the United States has marshaled its allies in an economic war with no obvious precedent. Within days of Vladimir Putin’s declaration of war in February, the United States galvanized the world’s leading democracies to impose sweeping sanctions on Russia’s financial sector, including the country’s central bank — the largest sanctions target in recent history.
Congressional action can provide the heft that’s needed to enforce difficult global sanctions regimes.
From the beginning of the campaign, the United States and its allies moved carefully in one key area: energy. Russia is a petro-state, dependent on oil and gas sales for two-thirds of its export revenues and half of its budget. But with global oil prices high and inflation afflicting much of the West, Washington and Brussels have been reluctant to take actions that could nudge oil prices — and inflation — still higher.
Early in the war, Washington banned domestic imports of Russian oil. Still, to ensure that sanctions didn’t inadvertently curb the flow of Russian oil to other countries, the Biden administration issued a license that exempts Russia’s energy sales from the thicket of U.S. restrictions. This exemption has allowed the Kremlin to continue to rake in billions from oil exports as its armies perpetrated untold atrocities in Ukraine. In December, that license will finally expire, and the United States and its allies will begin enforcing a price cap on Russia’s oil exports.
Read the full article from POLITICO.
More from CNAS
-
Podcast
Transatlantic Security / Middle East Security
The Russia-Iran Partnership: A Geopolitical Balancing ActIt has been almost a year since Russia and Iran signed their comprehensive strategic partnership. That deal established a 20-year partnership between the two countries coverin...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor & Jim Townsend
-
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
