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Financial markets and human rights groups were disappointed by Biden’s decision on Tuesday to impose sanctions on Russia’s top law enforcement officials for poisoning and jailing opposition leader Alexei Navaln. Similar criticisms followed Biden’s refusal to target the prince of Saudi Arabia, although he was accused in an intelligence report of agreeing to assassinate Washington Post observer Yamal Khashoggi.
US lawmakers from both parties also criticized the Biden administration last week after it hesitated to impose sanctions on German entities involved in building the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia, despite the project’s alleged violation of European security. .
Critics say the Biden administration has set the wrong tone from the start. They accused Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump of being too lenient with autocrats, now arguing that the new president’s actions are inconsistent with his rhetoric, which applies to leaders like Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
They argue that the United States could sanction Russian oligarchs or public debt and criticize Biden for his reluctance to punish the prince.
“They scolded Trump for his concessions to Russia and said he would act tough, and now, turning around, he’s doing the same,” said James Carafano, director of foreign policy research at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation. “The question is: what are you going to do in practice?”
The sanctions announced on Tuesday mean that punished senior Russian officials will be subject to travel restrictions and asset freezes, and yet these actions won’t have much of an impact, as those people likely won’t be traveling to the United States anyway and they pretend to have assets. on US accounts.
The same goes for sanctions against Saudi Arabia.
After publishing a report alleging that Prince Mohammed had given permission to assassinate Khashoggi, Biden avoided attacking him personally.
Such a decision has caused dissatisfaction among those who believe that the Prince of Saudi Arabia deserves direct punishment for his role in Khashoggi’s assassination, and the sanctions against Russia have disappointed Navaln’s supporters. The Russian ruble rallied on Tuesday, reversing the previous recession as it became clear that sanctions from the United States and the European Union were not as threatening as expected.
“The fact that the US and the EU have imposed sanctions on the people involved in Navalna’s imprisonment is great and wonderful,” wrote Maria Pevchik, a close ally of the detained Russian activist, on Twitter. “
The Biden administration responds that such criticism is unfounded. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, a senior official described the Navaln sanctions as a first step and suggested there were more in three areas: Russia’s election intervention, SolarWinds hacking the US government, and hundreds. from US companies, and reports that Russia has offered awards for the slaughter of US troops in Afghanistan.
Administration officials also stressed that they are cooperating with other states. They argue that this cooperation, whether it faces Russia, China or Iran, gives strength and effectiveness to American solutions, as joint action isolates the perpetrators.
“The report we announced today was in line with the European Union,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters. “It should not have been a silver bullet or the end of a difficult relationship with Russia.”
The focus on cooperating with allies comes after Biden repeatedly criticized Trump for making unilateral decisions too often in line with his “America first” strategy.
“They feel compelled to do so to restore trust in the Allies in the United States, but it also limits their options, as Europeans will never go as far as the United States would like,” said John Hughes, vice president of Albright Stonebridge Group and former Secretary of the United States. Official status of sanctions.
Therefore, the administration is trying to use a “finger-blame and shame” strategy to isolate countries it considers perpetrators.
His decision to declassify the report, which reveals the intervention of the Prince of Saudi Arabia, became an example, as did the decision to declassify the intelligence community’s assessment that Russian security services were behind the Navaln poisoning. .
“They want people to say, ‘Look, these are the bad guys,’ because it gives them the moral authority to attract allies so they can do other things together,” Hughes said. “They are really trying to understand what sanctions can be effective and how they can be used to achieve real foreign policy goals.”
These issues are being discussed as part of the sanctions policy review. The Trump administration has been accused of liking various sanctions around the world, but it has not justified its coherent strategy.
“The message is that what they have done transcends all borders,” said Kenneth Pollack, a researcher at the American Business Institute, who spoke about the new administration’s stance on Saudi Arabia. “And we point the finger at them and tell them that human rights are important and that they will have to pay for their actions, but we are not trying to ruin the relationship.”
And while the administration’s recent actions may have disappointed financial markets, the United States has other options, especially in the case of Russia. You can point to the Russian public debt.
Elina Ribakova, deputy chief economist at the Washington Institute of International Finance, says that while sanctions on the secondary bond market would be painful for Washington in the short term, they would insulate Russia from the global economy in the long term, making implementation easier. of fines. enforce in the future.
“This is an important Rubicon,” emphasizes Ribakova. “When global markets calm down for the first time in six months, it will be possible to try to tighten sanctions.”
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