There was no more murmuring of “minor border violations” like at the end of January when Joe Biden started a short speech on the current situation in Eastern Europe on Tuesday afternoon. Russia has cut a large piece of land out of Ukraine, the US President said: “This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.” Accordingly, the question no longer arose for him as to whether sanctions should be imposed on Russia. “That calls for a firm response,” Biden said.
Russia is cut off from the dollar market
On Monday, Biden had already introduced a first, limited bundle of sanctions against the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk and their helpers. Now he’s following up with a much heavier package. Among other things, the USA worked towards Germany putting the new gas pipeline from Russia on hold. “We are working with Germany to ensure that Nord Stream 2 does not go ahead,” said Biden. His spokeswoman Jen Psaki tweeted that this step was only possible thanks to US diplomacy – the country had been in contact with Germany all night.
However, the financial sanctions are particularly drastic: the USA are now refusing Russia to take on new government debt in US dollars. “We are cutting Russia off from Western funding,” Biden said. The step was agreed with the European countries, which will deny the Russian state access to the euro market. Biden is also imposing sanctions on two Russian banks and on oligarchs and their family members.
Assistance to threatened Balts
However, Biden made it clear that he considered all of this to be insufficient to deter Vladimir Putin from further provocations. His speech on Monday was too “bizarre”. He warned that Western countries are prepared to respond decisively to Russia’s next moves. The arsenal of economic sanctions has not yet been exhausted, stressed Biden: “We are ready to go further.” He did not elaborate on what options are still available, but said: “Russia will have to pay an even higher price.”
The USA also reacted militarily. They move more troops stationed in Europe east, particularly to the Baltic States. It was a response to Russia not withdrawing its units from Belarus, Biden said. Now he wants to assure the nervous Eastern European NATO members of US support and draw a red line for Putin. In his speech, he mentioned Russian claims to the territory of European NATO members and openly threatened war.
However, Biden emphasized that the troop movements were purely defensive operations: he had no intention of going to war with Russia. Rather, he is still interested in working towards a diplomatic solution – as long as Russia is serious about it. However, Biden no longer seems to believe in this possibility.