A US official on Monday signaled that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s deployment of troops into the Donbas as “peacekeepers” might not trigger the “massive” sanctions the US has been threatening to hit Russia with if it “invades” Ukraine.
The US has long accused Russia of having troops deployed in the Donbas, which Moscow has denied. A senior administration official told reporters on Monday that Putin’s peacekeeping deployment would “not be a new step” and would only make the Russian presence in the region “more overt.”
In response to Putin’s recognition of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, the Biden administration imposed minor sanctions that prohibit US citizens from doing business in the two republics. The US official said more sanctions were coming on Tuesday but the comments about Putin’s troop deployment suggest the Biden administration might not implement the harsh sanctions it has been threatening.
The Biden administration has been threatening to try to cut off Russia from the global financial system if it “further invades” Ukraine. Such a move would not only hurt Russia, but also the US’s European allies who rely on Moscow for natural gas.
Hawks in Congress are calling for President Biden to implement the toughest sanctions he can and to try and kill the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which connects Russia and Germany. Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) said the sanctions imposed on Monday were “the definition of impotence.”
**Heads are exploding in the DC Swamp and they can’t do anything about it.
If Biden doesn’t impose his harshest sanctions, he’s going to look so weak that his Presidency will be at risk even before the midterms, let alone the next election cycle. And if he doesn’t implement them, Germany and the rest of the EU will be emboldened to tell him to go to hell if he tries to do so later. NATO will be under severe pressure if Biden doesn’t respond to this with all that farcical “sanctions from hell” nonsense they’ve been babbling about for months. And I’m sure Russia took that into account by making this move. This is as much a move to break NATO as to safeguard Donbass.
Very well said Richard and nicely laid out…
Well, Nord Stream 2 is now out of the picture, at least for now – and probably permanently. So Germany has decided to commit economic suicide.
Germany’s Scholz halts Nord Stream 2 as Ukraine crisis deepens
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/germanys-scholz-halts-nord-stream-2-certification-2022-02-22/
I am betting that Germany has been told that the U.S. taxpayers will subsidize the additional costs of getting their gas and oil from the U.S.
Once the West imposes the harshest sanctions, there is nothing left for them to do. Russia will be completely unfettered, able to do whatever they want without consequence. (which they already are if these clowns actually watched Putin’s speech).
The recognition of Donbas separatists by Putin got Biden by surprise and made him fall in a deep State of Confusion….! Not that he wasn’t confused before…!
The US has achieved what it wanted: no nord stream 2, continued control of the EU by the US at the expense of the EU, continuation of NATO, more money for the USMIC, and most of all continuation of the US$ as a fiat currency and probably the expulsion of Russia from SWIFT. The biggest loser in this is the Ukraine follwed closely by the EU. The Ukraine has always been expendable as far as the US is concerned as the US never worries about the consequences of its actions on the peoples of other nations.