As Russian troops advance on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, the Biden administration’s sanctions appear to have had little to no effect on Putin’s short-term strategy.
“A lot of these sanctions are also overrated,” said former National Security Advisor John Bolton, a Friday guest of “On Balance With Leland Vittert.”
On Thursday, President Joe Biden announced a second round of sanctions against Russia in an attempt to punish the country economically. Taking aim at Russia’s financial system, Biden said, the United States will block assets of large Russian banks, impose export controls aimed at the nation’s high-tech needs and sanction its business oligarchs.
Bolton suggested that many of Biden’s sanctions were predictable and that limited their effect.
“Any Russian company that left any substantial assets in the United States deserves to have them taken,” said Bolton.
On Friday, the Biden Administration went a step further and moved to freeze the assets of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
It’s not immediately clear how impactful Friday’s actions, which directly target the Russian president, will affect him.
For now, Biden has held off imposing even more severe sanctions, such as cutting Russia out of the SWIFT payment system, which makes it easier to transfer money from bank to bank around the globe.
But Bolton said blocking Russia from SWIFT won’t have much of an impact and cited Iran as a country that was able to move forward despite being blocked.
For his part, Biden said banning Russia from SWIFT does not have the support of European allies.
“It is always an option, but right now that’s not the position that the rest of Europe wishes to take,” he said.
US troops will not engage with Russian forces in Ukraine but have been deployed to support NATO allies. Nevertheless, Russian forces continue to advance toward Kyiv.
“If Poland wakes up tomorrow morning and finds Ukraine completely taken by the Russians, with Russian troops on their border to the south … they’re going to be very unhappy and very nervous,” said Bolton.
