I can’t find an explanation for John Kerry’s extremely weird actions. Every day he warns the Russians that their foreign accounts are about to be frozen. Any day now they will be frozen. Just a little longer, and the accounts will be frozen. The moment hell freezes over the accounts will freeze, too.
Does he not realize that after all these warnings every account in question has been emptied?
When I play hide-and-seek with my 4-year-old niece Klubnikis, I always announce very loudly, “Here I come! Where is Klubnikis? I will find her immediately!” I do it so that the kid has time to hide. Klubnikis always laughs because even at the age of 4 she understands what I’m doing.
I have no doubt the Russians, too, are peeing themselves with laughter every time they hear one of these threats.
This round of the Cold War has been won by the Russians.
Clarissa's Blog 
Americans in general don’t understand that people in other societies might be motivated by different kinds of values (and different kinds of strategies are called for).
I think he’s thinking: Making it clear that rich business people could face difficulties will motivate said business people to put pressure on the government. This is more or less how it might work in the US or similar countries. He doesn’t get the entirely different relationship between business and government that exists in Russia.
He’s also thinking that Russian business people are…. Russian and care for the welfare of their society to some degree and doesn’t understand that in places like Russia the elite gives ideas like ‘for the good of society’ or ‘my fellow citizens’ about as much thought as they do to a pile of rocks and mud on the outskirts of Irkutsk, maybe less.
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Well the idea of business putting pressure on government is not unique to the US. It was one of the dynamics that led to an end to apartheid. De Beers really didn’t care about South Africans not even white ones. They cared about the fact that it was becoming impossible to sell anything from South Africa in a lot of markets.
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I am waiting for the Obama regime to claim that Russia is “an established terrorist state” so they can pull the War of Terror board game out and play it with Putin.
Something about tragedy becoming farce might be appropriate if the players weren’t willing to split the differences between Kafka and Beckett …
“So, Mister Kerry, what is to be done?”
“Nothing is to be done! We are waiting for Godot!”
“Have a carrot, Vladimir, and tell us what is to be done …”
“Nothing is to be done! We are waiting for Mister Kerry to summon Godot!”
On second thought, they can split the differences between Kafka, Beckett, and Chernyshevsky …
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http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116988/barack-obama-foreign-policy-speak-loudly-and-carry-small-stick
On February 28, Obama warned Putin that “there will be costs” if Russia sent troops to the Ukraine. That had all the earmarks of an ultimatum, but it was delivered publicly and not backed up by credible threats. By the next day, Russian forces were spotted taking control of government buildings. The White House then raised the possibility of Iran-style sanctions against Russian banks. Secretary of State John Kerry indicated that “all options” were on the table. But as happened with Syria in August, the White House had issued threats before assembling the appropriate coalition to back them up. On March 4, Germany, the United Kingdom, and France, which had far deeper economic ties to Russia than did the United States, all indicated they would not go along with punitive sanctions against Russian banks, only with restrictions on visas for Russian officials linked to the invasion. In his attempt to pressure Putin and Russia to withdraw, Obama had come up empty again. He had not put any power behind his policies. And he may have forfeited any Russian cooperation in the Middle East.
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There was never any chance of cooperation with Russia on anything. Everything Putin does is about sticking it to the Americans. Everything
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