Biden begins to sanction Russia for Ukraine invasion

 National Review:

President Biden announced several new economic sanctions against Russia on Tuesday, one day after the Kremlin moved to formally invade two separatist regions of Eastern Ukraine that have long been under the control of its proxies.

“This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Biden said. “I’m going to begin to impose sanctions in response, far beyond the steps we and our allies and partners imposed in 2014. If Russia goes further with this invasion we stand prepared to go further.”

In what he referred to as the “first tranche” of expected sanctions, Biden announced the “full blocking” of Russia’s VEB bank and the country’s military bank, as well as sanctions on Russian sovereign debt, which Biden said would help cut Russia off from western financing. Biden continued that the U.S. will begin on Wednesday to sanction members of Russia’s elite and their family members.

“Because of Russia’s actions we worked with Germany to ensure Nord Stream 2 will not, as I promised, will not move forward,” Biden added

Meanwhile, the president authorized additional deployments of U.S. forces to the Baltic nations of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia, because of the continued presence of Russian troops in neighboring Belarus. Biden emphasized that the deployments were purely defensive in nature.
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Putin set out three demands to resolve the disputes between Russia and Ukraine, saying that Ukraine must recognize Russian sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula, renounce its attempt to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and partially demilitarize.
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Putin appears to have an irrational fear of Ukraine which in reality is no military threat to Russia.  He also wants Ukraine to legitimize his previous conquest of Crimea. As for NATO, it is Putin's actions that have prompted the need for Ukraine to join NATO.

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