Sanctions Weakness

This morning, on the question of sanctions and how the West should respond to Russia’s aggression, I wrote:

The sanctions long promised by the West in the event of an invasion should be imposed. Any hesitation to impose maximum sanctions on the Russian regime will be viewed by Putin as utter weakness. Make no mistake, these sanctions cannot hope to force Moscow to withdraw from Ukraine. But the United States, the United Kingdom, the EU, and our Asian allies should move swiftly to sanction Russian banks, individual Russian oligarchs and elites, and any business or organization that could contribute to the Russian war machine. Britain has said it will seize the assets and real estate of Russian oligarchs in London if Putin invades Ukraine. Every Western country should follow Britain’s lead.

Unfortunately, we’re already showing weakness. In his press conference this afternoon, President Biden confirmed that we wouldn’t yet cut Russia off from SWIFT — a system that facilitates payments in international finance and banking — because some of the Europeans are not on board.

Biden claims that the already-announced sanctions are of “maybe more consequence” than removing Russia from SWIFT. Plus, the president insists, “it’s always an option” to remove the Russians from the payment system later.

Moreover, the Western allies won’t yet seek to sanction Putin personally.

Why not? What possible purpose is there in waiting? Putin has already undertaken a full-scale invasion of a European country. Hundreds, likely thousands, are already dead. Delay only implies that what Putin has done already isn’t all that bad.

Does the administration believe that additional sanctions will somehow change Putin’s behavior? That seems . . . unlikely at best.

The West can’t even agree to ban the Russians from competing in the Eurovision music contest. This is weakness, not strength.