As a candidate for president, Barack Obama elicted a continent’s cheers when he came to Berlin and told the adoring crowds that “in the absence of Soviet tanks and a terrible wall, it has become easy to forget” the threats against world peace.
The following year, the Nobel Committee in Oslo bestowed upon the new president a Nobel Peace Prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
So why is it that now — at the moment President Obama needs Europeans to stand with him against Vladimir Putin’s Russia — the Europeans are balking?
That’s our takeaway from this week’s White House announcement of new sanctions against companies and individuals surrounding Putin. The concept is excellent, for the oligarchs are at once Putin’s strength and Achilles heel. He allows them to get fabulously rich and they help prop him up. But their investments and need for Western capital makes Putin vulnerable in a way the old leaders of the Soviet Union never were.
Unfortunately, the new sanctions are relatively light. For example, they target Igor Sechin, president of Rosneft, Russia’s leading oil companies — but not his company. The reaction of the Russian market suggests relief the sanctions were more limited than what had been expected.
The primary reason for that is Europe, which has announced its own sanctions. In contrast to the United States, the European Union has opted to target Russian government officials, not the high-powered business leaders where we have the leverage.
What a pity. For if Europe really prefers diplomatic to military pressure, strong targeted sanctions offer the best hope. As much as these oligarchs might thump their chests about Russian pride, they like their London bank accounts, their flats in St. Tropez and their overall access to Western markets.
Sanctioning oligarchs to pressure Putin makes good sense. But it’ll be hard to succeed if Europe doesn’t sign on.