I’m behind on the Q&As, for which I apologize. I will start catching up immediately. Here’s one question:
These sanctions are a nothing burger. There have been years of sanctions, and they have had zero effect. Russians don’t react to poverty or a plunging standard of living. The only people impacted are middle-class, and they are a tiny percentage. Nobody gives a crap about what they want.
The problem is much bigger. Nobody knows what to do. Trump is trying to recreate Hillary’s “Russia reset” that was a re-creation of George W Bush’s policy which was a replay of Bill Clinton’s policy which was identical to Bush Sr’s policy. Thirty-five years of doing the exact same thing and getting the exact same terrible result not because anybody wants a terrible result but because nobody knows what else to do.
I also don’t know what to do. There was a chance to spare us all this crap back in 1990. That chance was pissed away. Since then, nobody found the courage to state openly why it was pissed away. You can’t solve a problem you are afraid to name. So we are stuck. We will continue beating our heads against a wall that grows thicker with every hit.
Clarissa's Blog 
“The problem is much bigger. Nobody knows what to do”
I don’t know if I agree with this. Russia has absolutely no reason to negotiate right now because they keep gaining territory, it’s a little at a time but it’s steady. Their cities are not getting bombed, life goes on normally more or less in the big cities, the economy while hurting keeps chugging along. What seems obvious to me is Russia needs to be given reasons to negotiate, and this is the part that I just can’t wrap my head around Trump’s strategy.
I may be way out of my depth here, but it does seem to me that serious economic sanctions that affect Russia’s bottom line could at the very least help to pick away at Russia’s economy, which in my opinion is the one thing that could break first in Russia. Sanctions are not going to solve the whole thing on it’s own, but it’s better than to try to make friends with Russia.
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What do you suggest is the right thing to do?
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I don’t have the slightest idea. Nobody has the slightest idea. Ideas will start coming once we collectively name the problem and recognize what created it. Without that, we are doomed to persevere in the mistake. Which is exactly what’s happening.
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The big change since the end of the Cold War is the reversal of the Moscow Beijing relationship (even if Xi still remembers the old days). The sanctions just increase Russia’s dependency on China.
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/strengthening-china-russia-nexus
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