As the Russia-Ukraine crisis continues to escalate, the United States is taking greater steps in its response.
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President Biden announced Tuesday that the United States will impose sanctions that will hit the Russian economy after Russian troops entered Ukrainian territory. The “first tranche” of sanctions will cut off Russia’s government from Western financing and punish two Russian banks. Additional sanctions could follow if aggressions continue by Russia.
We checked back in with co-director of European studies and professor in USC’s department of politics and international relations, Robert English. He had this to stay on the recent changes in the growing conflict.
ROBERT ENGLISH: Both sides are locked into their positions, and sensible compromise which could be achieved is slipping away because neither side is willing to back down.
Although hope hasn’t completely faded.
ENGLISH: As long as there isn’t that massive invasion and, you know, deterioration into open fighting loss of life, then of course there’s still room for compromise.
Gregory Treverton, English’s colleague in the Department of International Relations at USC, discusses how Putin’s latest actions affect the conflict.
TREVERTON: His main objective is also his main game, though I think it’s about the United States, NATO and the security order in Europe that is long chafed and wanted to do something about it. This is a sort of odd and an indirect way of doing it, but he’s certainly got our attention.
Treverton praises Biden’s response to the crisis so far.
TREVERTON: The impressive thing about the [Biden] administration’s response so far is how well they’ve done at bringing NATO together, bringing allies together and certainly after the dissing of allies during the Trump administration.
But when asked about the potential impact of Biden’s sanctions, English didn’t seem too confident.
ENGLISH: If the Europeans wanted to hit Russia hard, they would stop the pipelines where they are buying gas right now. That’s not been done. So when people understand its potential future loss of income not hitting Russia now, then they realize it’s pretty mild as well.
Treverton says the near future remains unknown.
TREVERTON: The big question is really what happens next and think it depends on Putin. He is impetuous and he’s also surrounded by a very narrow circle of people that are entirely likely to agree with him. Therefore, the chances that he might do something rash have always been there and they seem to be more worrisome now that he’s actually moved troops into Ukraine.
While the conflict does seem to be heading in the wrong direction, it seems that the US’s intention remains clear: supporting Ukraine. Biden played his cards, and now it’s Putin’s turn. Within the next few days, we’ll see how he responds.