After a delay of a week and a half, after American corporate giants such as McDonald's and Starbucks took the far-reaching step of closing shop in Russia, the US administration gave into growing public pressure and finally got on board with severe sanctions that it did not initiate, although it contributed to them, especially in the economic and financial sectors.
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After Germany froze the launch of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which has already been built, the White House shifted gears and decided to include Russia's energy sector in its policy of sanctions over the Ukraine invasion, and to implement that policy gradually.
Although the decision could entail a heavy cost to US citizens, such as additional hikes in the price of oil and gas (which are already sky-high), and although the European partners still haven't joined the move because of their dependence on the natural gas they import from Russia, it is a clear warning to the Kremlin.
The significance of this warning is that Russia's continued brutal assault and besieging of Ukrainian cities and indiscriminate killing of helpless civilians will not go without a painful American response, which could eventually deal a direct blow to Russia's war infrastructure and create considerable logistic and maintenance difficulties for its violent advance that is quickly turning Ukraine into a pile of rubble.
However, and along with the willingness to tighten the noose of leverage around Moscow, its leaders, and its citizens in the hope that the price will prod Putin into abandoning his delusions of grandeur, the American beacon of freedom is still faint and is not giving full inspiration to Russia's threatened neighbors.
Indeed, the decision to place Russian gas and oil imports under an embargo came with an initial American refusal to agree to Poland's proposal of supplying fighter jets to Ukraine. Biden's fear of escalation overshadowed any other consideration and put the president back on the path of overcautious conduct, even though the Kremlin is constantly stepping up the extent of its destruction and is now making threats about what it will do to Ukraine if its demands are not met, including dramatic warnings about possible use of chemical or biological weapons in an attempt to provide an excuse for itself if that extreme scenario comes to pass. Even in light of these concerning developments, Biden's people prefer to make use of moderate tools of punishment in conjunction with symbolic actions, such as Vice President Kamala Harris' suggestion to hold an international investigation into the war crimes Russian forces are carrying out in Ukraine.
Beyond that, the president is starting to pay a heavy price for his failures toward the Gulf partners in the Abraham Accords. His cool response to the accords, which were a creation of the Trump administration, his decision to freeze the sale of F35s to the United Arab Emirates, and his apathy to Houthi missile assaults on vital strategic assets in the region have led to the Gulf states' refusal to fight the Kremlin and raise their oil production quotas to help ease Europe's energy crisis.
The administration's cold shoulder to its regional allies is boomeranging on it, since Iranian oil shipments to the West aren't expected to begin again any time soon, even with the new Iran nuclear deal ready to be signed. And Israel? All it needs to do is tighten its relations with its strategic partners who share its concern about the Iranian threat and the ramifications of the imminent Vienna II deal, in the hope of creating a safety net that will provide it with some cover now that the American defense has been shown to be full of holes.
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