How Sanctions Can Be a Double-Edged Sword

It’s difficult to accurately gauge Russian power. As the world’s largest country, Russia covers 11 time zones. The Soviet Union had more total surface area than Pluto, and Russia’s current borders are only slightly smaller! Its military strength is evaluated as second only to America’s, and its leader is a sinister ex-KGB operative.

However.

The country is mostly empty, only ninth by population, and completely landlocked.

Its military strength is mostly leftovers from the Cold War, completely unsustainable on its meager economy of $1.4 trillion GDP — much smaller than just that of Texas ($2 trillion).

One of the theories for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is that he has to do this now, because his resources will only get weaker as time goes on.

So the West’s notion of punishing him with sanctions — thus avoiding the World War Putin knows the West would like to avoid — is a sound one.

But they have to be implemented the right way.

Reports indicate that unilateral sanctions have thus far been successful in hitting the Russian economy, yet Russia has continued its fight to subjugate Ukraine nonetheless.

Sanctions can be a double-edged sword.

In addition to the economic harm inflicted on the target of sanctions, there is harm that sanctions impose on the country imposing sanctions.

On the national security side, sanctions are a substitute for either threatened or actual military action against a nation, therefore they are a preferred option to deploying troops and putting armed citizens in harm’s way. And sometimes sanctions are paired with military action to exert maximum pain on an offending country.

Right now, Russia is at the receiving end of weighty sanctions from the West.

According to Reuters, the first wave of strong sanctions hit Russia on Feb. 27, 2022, with Russian aircraft banned from American, European Union, and Canadian airspace, followed by the blocking of Russian banks’ access to the SWIFT international payments system.

The next day, the U.S., EU, United Kingdom, and Japan banned transactions with the Russian central bank, Ministry of Finance, and national wealth fund.

These nations also announced travel bans, asset freezes on wealthy Russians.

This early flurry of sanctions has been followed by a steady stream of increased penalties.

Even Switzerland joined the international community to push back against Putin!

The increase in sanctions was welcomed by Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, who said economic penalties "should be maximum, so that Russia and every other potential aggressor that wants to wage a brutal war against its neighbor would clearly know the immediate consequences of their actions."

That call was answered when both the EU and the U.S. sanctioned the import of Russian gold. This was part of a larger discussion targeting metal originating from Russia.

One problem is that there were exceptions included in the metal ban, including the metal titanium that is exported from Russia to be used in aircraft.

The titanium exemption came at the hands of European aerospace company, Airbus and a spokesman for the company argued, as quoted in Business Insider, "sanctions on Russian titanium would hardly harm Russia, because they only account for a small part of export revenues there, but they would massively damage the entire aerospace industry across Europe."

The Wall Street Journal reported on June 21, 2022, "Airbus is pushing against sanctions on Russian titanium sales, amid a flurry of restrictions on the export of other Russian goods ranging from vodka to steel" and the France based company "is still importing hefty amounts of titanium from one of the country’s biggest exporters."

This weakens sanctions and will make the use of military force more likely, which must be avoided unless they become unavoidable. The last thing the world needs is for Putin to feel cornered, and lash out like the over-used story of that rat that bit him when he was a boy.

While sanctions are hurting American consumers and businesses, the country is united against Russian aggression. The EU has also imposed some harsh sanctions, yet they have gone wobbly on the import of titanium at the behest of the largest aerospace company in Europe.

That company should not be exempt from the difficulties other companies are facing in getting services, goods, and resources from Russia.

Defense contractors are supposed to support a nation state’s security objectives, not dictate them. Russia is not a safe bet in this game of brinksmanship, even if it gets bigger than Pluto again.

Jared Whitley is a long-time politico who has worked in the U.S. Congress, White House and defense industry. He is an award-winning writer, having won best blogger in the state from the Utah Society of Professional Journalists (2018) and best columnist from Best of the West (2016). He earned his MBA from Hult International Business School in Dubai. Read Jared Whitley's reports — More Here.