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Beyond Sanctions: What's the West's Strategy on Russia?
Summary
The
escalating sanctions have served as a warning shot to Moscow. But
sanctions can only become meaningful if they are part of a wider
strategy.
Western sanctions against
Russia appear to have a fairly narrow, tangible goal: to punish Moscow
for supporting pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. But to what end?
Sanctions need to reinforce a wider strategy designed to change Moscow’s
behavior so that it starts respecting the sovereignty of all
post-Soviet states.
Ukraine is just the latest example in a long series of attempts by Russia to control its neighborhood and to reduce the sovereignty of countries that were controlled by Moscow in Soviet times. The conflict did not start in Ukraine, and it will not end there. The tensions that have erupted in Ukraine will subside only if Russia finally understands that it can have a prosperous future as a nation-state alongside others when it respects the rules of the post–World War II and post–Cold War international system.
Ukraine is just the latest example in a long series of attempts by Russia to control its neighborhood and to reduce the sovereignty of countries that were controlled by Moscow in Soviet times. The conflict did not start in Ukraine, and it will not end there. The tensions that have erupted in Ukraine will subside only if Russia finally understands that it can have a prosperous future as a nation-state alongside others when it respects the rules of the post–World War II and post–Cold War international system.
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