President Biden drops the hammer on Vladimir Putin
President Biden’s administration is announcing long-awaited measures against Russia on Thursday, including financial sanctions, in response to hacking of government and private networks (known as SolarWinds), the bounties Russia put on our troops’ heads in Afghanistan, Russian efforts to interfere with our elections, and a range of other activity.
The sanctions are meant to impose real costs on Moscow, cutting deeper than previous efforts to punish Russia. Only time will tell whether they will prove sufficient to deter Russia from further hacking, influence operations, or threatening European countries. Previous sanctions have been shrugged off.
“It will not simply be sanctions,” said Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security advisor. It will include “a mix of tools seen and unseen.” There have been disagreements on which steps to make public, and concerns that Russia may retaliate by exploiting “back doors” implanted into American systems.
Putin has seemingly been trying to get Biden’s attention as of late, but I’m sure Biden has had eyes on Russia and has been being briefed on Putin’s evil-doings all along, planning his moves. Biden spoke with Putin Tuesday, warning him about Russia’s military buildup on Ukraine’s border. Jen Psaki only reported Biden’s call was meant to emphasize consequences of Russian activities, with no word of whether Biden revealed any of his pending moves.
This will be the second round of sanctions Biden has taken against Putin, as opposed to the former guy, who let Putin get away with murder without so much as even a diplomatic warning. Being from a military family, it always frustrates me that when Putin’s wrongdoings are brought up, they never include his breaking of agreements and attacking our troops in Syria, which Trump did nothing about.
