The Biden administration stopped short of imposing sanctions on any Russian officials over suspected bounties offered to militants to encourage the killings of American and coalition troops in Afghanistan, acknowledging that the intelligence community does not have conclusive evidence on the matter.
So Biden’s not just going to make stuff up?
Russia seems to still be posturing:
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russias-plan-restrict-foreign-warships-near-crimea-will-keep-kerch-strait-open-2021-04-16/
ETA:
The right of passage of foreign warships and “other state ships” will be suspended in three spots near Crimea’s Black Sea coast from April 24 until October 31, RIA said, citing Russia’s defence ministry.
Best summary of the T**** maladministration as I’ve ever seen.
I remember they fell all over themselves trying to say whether or not Trump had even been told about the small matter.
Fat Donnie’s administration did only binary nuance - either full volume, or off.
Jumbo Shrimp.
Civil war
Biden, who brought up the Russian bounties in his first call as president with Russian president Vladimir Putin in January, had repeatedly criticized Trump during the 2020 presidential race for failures to stand up to Putin over the bounties intelligence.
Yeah, well, considering the other guy was in Russia’s pocket the entire time and owed his victory in 2016 to them, not such a big deal.
And if Trump would have shared intelligence with Biden - something he didn’t do even after Biden won -then I’m certain Biden would have stopped making that particular claim during the campaign. But I will not, under any circumstances, feel sorry for the “lock her up” asshole.
Compassionate Conservative.
It’s really not like there’s not enough malfeasance on the part of Putin otherwise. Messing with our democracy in 2016 and 2020 is reason enough to lower the boom. Russia needs to suffer. Not just a few oligarchs but the whole damned country needs to feel the pain for attacking our democracy.
Yesterday I posted about this and @cervantes made a good point. It had the flair of an Aesop tale. Think of Rump calling wolf too often. We as spectators and commentators assumed Rump was lying when it’s actually possible that he wasn’t. I know that would be odd but…
I think it’s a step-wise approach. He offered Putin both the carrot and the stick. If Putin takes the carrot, we talk and see what we can do. If he doesn’t, then even more powerful sanctions and other actions come. Along with personally targeting oligarchs, I understand blocking the selling of Russia’s bonds would be a powerful blow.
Putin is in a very complicated position. He hates the US and wants to bring back the USSR to something like it was in the 60’s and 70’s. He is increasingly unpopular at home and economic sanctions are only going to make that worse. The oligarchs are going to get hit the hardest and Putin may have trouble controlling them if they start losing their mini-empires. Trump was in Putin’s pocket but is also so clueless he would not have known how to deal with Putin if that had not been the case. Biden and his team understand Putin and Russia and know how to apply pressure without going too far. It will take time and patience but the USA and Russia have to come to some kind of reconciliation of differences that prevents war. It may not be possible with Putin in charge but it must be pursued.
“Step wise approach”
You mean like these steps?
Annex Crimea
Invade Donbas
Interfere in US 2016 election
Interfere in US 2020 election
Appeasement in the 30s was a “step wise approach”. It failed.
The hammer needs to come down on Russia NOW!
“Prevents war”
Russia would actually require an effective military. They can’t even make any significant gains against Ukraine in Donbas.
Russia scares me almost as much as Bolivia. In other words, they are a paper tiger.
I get it, but we’re just recovering from four long frustrating years of Trump behaving like Putin’s vassal. Biden is righting the ship. For example, we’ve already begun sending significant military payload to Ukraine to impose a cost on Russia if they choose to invade.
Biden understands Putin went after him personally. Not just in terms of trying to thwart his election, but in attacking his only remaining son viciously, repeatedly, and scurrilously. I, too, want to see the hammer brought down on Putin yesterday, but I’m willing to give Biden some time and room to maneuver. He’s got to get our allies back on board as well, to maximize the bite on Putin, after four years of abuse from Trump.
Military intelligence.
A paper tiger with nuclear weapons.
Which Putin would probably use if he believed he could get away with it.
But he can’t get away with it. Nobody (states) can.