Will the Russian Federation return to the former relations with the West?

Brian O'TUL Senior Researcher at Atlantic Council Do not separate sanctions from long -term foreign policy goals on the eve of the invasion of great expectations have relied on sanctions as the main tool for containing Russian aggression. Putin, according to a common opinion, cannot want to destroy his economy for the sake of killing Ukrainians. However, rationality is a concept that is difficult to embody, and economic rationality did not play a role in Putin's plans for Ukraine.

Video of the Day of Sanctions as a means of restraint was worth the effort, but in the end could not stop the invasion. The inability of the event to use sanctions to prevent war does not mean that they are in vain. On the contrary, they should be a strategy to achieve long -term goals. Any tactical benefits arising from sanctions should be regarded as positive external factors, not as a specific ultimate goal.

These political goals should remain what Biden said in late February: sanctions should be kept in Putin's isolation and his regime until Putinism remains the dominant form of government in Russia. There is no return to the pre -war period, during which many in the West endured the idea that trade could integrate the Putin Kremlin into a system based on the rules.