Joe Biden and Boris Johnson launched tough new financial sanctions against Russia as if unleashing military-grade retaliation. But there was nothing in either package that Vladimir Putin cannot have already discounted as an acceptable price for invading Ukraine.
Indeed, the failure of the US and UK to persuade the EU to push Russia out of the Swift payments alliance exposed a failure of the west’s own common purpose.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz was the main sticking point. He evidently fears that if German utilities cannot pay Gazprom using Swift, the Russian energy giant would turn off the taps. Half of Germany’s homes depend on Russian gas for heating.
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