Tag sanctions

I was wrong about Trump

Once I had great – inflated – hopes for Trump. I was disappointed by Obama’s reluctance to actively resist the Kremlin’s aggression. Obama’s 2014 sanctions, I thought, were inadequate, even counterproductive. It would have been natural for Trump – it…

This time it _is_ different

The latest from the US Treasury: The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in consultation with the Department of State, today designated seven Russian oligarchs and 12 companies they own or control, 17 senior Russian…

If you don’t have a billion…

Ten years ago, Moscow developer Sergei Polonsky greeted guests at his party with an affectionate disclaimer: “If you don’t have a billion, you can go f— yourself.” Before long, the Fates ejected him from the billionaire camp: bankruptcy, flight to…

It makes no sense, but will it work?

Here’s my superficial reading of the “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.” Apart from relatively minor tightenings of the screws (which might nonetheless hurt a good deal), there are three major innovations, as far as I can see: (a) The…

Any good to come out of this?

The Russian government seems to be overreacting to the Su–24 crisis, threatening wide-scale economic sanctions against Turkey that are certain to hurt Russian consumers. (Bombing Voronezh in response, again.) Is this Putin taking personal offense – an ego contest between the…

Gangsters and…

Gazeta Wyborcza quotes Latvian politician Artis Pabriks speaking at a conference dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Baltic Chain: [Russia] has responded to the EU sanctions so as to damage small countries. The majority in our countries is in…