(RoyalPatriot.com )- Two weeks ago during his joint press conference at the White House with German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz, President Biden warned a Russian invasion of Ukraine would be the end to Putin’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
Biden vowed that the Nord Stream 2 project would face sanctions if Russia invades.
However, Chancellor Scholtz refused to commit to sanctions on Nord Stream 2.
If Russia invades, there will be sanctions is running narrative coming out of the White House and one that was echoed by Vice President Kamala Harris when she addressed the Munich security conference on Saturday.
During her speech, Harris warned of “significant and unprecedented” economic costs “if Russia further invades Ukraine.”
But the question is, what’s the point of waiting for the invasion to sanction Russia?
That’s the very question Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky brought up when he addressed the Munich security conference after Kamala.
During his speech, Zelensky questioned the logic of waiting until after his country is invaded to slap sanctions on Russia.
Noting that the Biden administration has announced that Putin has made up his mind to invade, Zelensky asked “what are you waiting for?” He said Ukraine doesn’t need the West’s sanctions on Russia after the bombs start falling, the country is occupied and its economy is in ruins. Ukraine needs them now.
Zelensky has a point. Clearly, the threat of sanctions alone isn’t deterring Putin if he has, as Biden claimed, decided to invade.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the rounds of the Sunday shows where he was asked about Zelensky’s call for sanctions before Russia invades.
During CNN’s “State of the Union,” Blinken said that “the purpose of sanctions” is to deter Russia from going to war. But, and see if you can follow this “logic,” Blinken argued that once you trigger the sanctions, “the deterrent is gone.”
So, the deterrent isn’t the sanctions, but the “threat” of sanctions.
But since the White House said last Friday that Putin has decided to invade, the “threat” isn’t deterring anything.
And on “Meet the Press,” Blinken explained that once the sanctions are imposed, “they get absorbed by President Putin and he moves on.”
But wouldn’t the same thing hold true after he invades Ukraine? If Putin can “absorb” the sanctions before he invades, can’t he “absorb” them and “move on” after he invades?
It’s almost as though the Biden administration has no plans to sanction Russia at all.
