President Barack Obama said Thursday Ukraine rebels are “backed, trained, armed, financed by Russia,” but ruled out sending U.S. troops to join the conflict. (snip) Mr. Obama is correct that the only plausible course is to increase the pain on Moscow to the point that Mr. Putin’s domestic position is substantially weakened.Is Mr. Obama correct? That would be different, and rather unlikely.
Russia can sell its oil and gas to China which has little petroleum of its own, an almost unlimited appetite for energy, and billions of U.S. dollars to spend. Using oil revenue Russia can buy food on the open market from unaligned nations like Argentina, Brazil and Indonesia.
Can we make sanctions hurt much? I doubt it. Russians dream of regaining the empire known as the Soviet Union plus Warsaw Pact - everything behind the former Iron Curtain.
Putin wakes up every morning scheming on that very goal, and Russians know and love it. Can you blame them? I expect they feel, paraphrasing Budd Schulberg's words from On The Waterfront, "I was a contender, I usta be somebody instead of a bum, which is what I am."
