Other

Putin's nightmare. What else can Biden do before his departure

The bold operation in the Kursk region again forced to talk about the victory of Ukraine in the war. Politician and businessman Jake Okinkloss in a column for The Wall Street Journal calls three things that Joe Biden can have time for this victory before he leaves his post. Ukraine has an initiative. After a few months of a positional war, she launched a lightning invasion of Russia, which was alarmed by the Kremlin. To get the benefit, she now needs the help of President Baiden.

He can do three things: to work with President Vladimir Zelensky on the definition of victory; sanctioning sanctions that will reduce Russia's income from oil; And to strengthen the military economy of Ukraine, providing long -term funding at the expense of frozen assets of Russia. Biden and Zelensky should determine the victory in clear and convincing terms: safe eastern border, freedom of navigation in the Black Sea and the inevitable entry of Ukraine to the European Union.

These complementary goals would be marked by the emergence of Ukraine whose sovereignty, economics and democracy have become stronger than before the invasion. It would be a strategic defeat of Vladimir Putin and a victory worthy of heroism of Ukrainians. In order for Ukraine to achieve this victory, Mr Biden must allow the use of fighter jets and ballistic missiles of American production to disable Russian oil refining enterprises.

This would undermine Mr Putin's most important source of income without increasing world prices. In the Essay for Foreignaffers magazine, three international energy experts explained why: "These blows reduce Russia's ability to turn their oil into useful products; they do not affect the volume of oil that a country can produce or export.

In fact, less domestic oil refining capacities will It is forced to export more of its raw oil, not less, which will lead to a decrease rather than an increase in world prices. " Earlier this year, Ukraine destroyed about 14% of Russian oil refineries with drones. Imagine what she could do with the F-16 and tactical missiles. Mr Biden should allow us to find out, as well as give good to Ukrainian strikes on starting, logistics and basic objects in Russia.

Additional sanctions would supplement these blows. Treasury officials are in favor of increasing maritime sanctions to reduce Russia's income from oil. The White House still resisted such efforts. It's a mistake. Higher transport expenditures due to Western sanctions in combination with the reduction of oil refining capacity through Ukrainian blows will strike a double blow to Putin's oil production country. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian economy needs a "injection in hand".

Finance Minister Janet Ellen reports that she is close to the Great Seven Agreement and European Union leaders to provide Ukraine with a $ 50 billion loan, which will serve interest from $ 300 billion in frozen Russian assets owned by rich democratic countries. The key will be to receive from the EU, which has most of the money, the guarantees that the assets will remain frozen for a long time to generate income. Ukraine's financing by Russian money is popular even among republican legislators.

By investing long-term capital, Ukraine could accelerate the development of its defense-industrial base. This is the nightmare of Mr Putin: Ukraine, which becomes stronger every day, causes a strong blow to Russia's military economy and fights for the achievement of clear military goals. This is what the victory is, and Mr Biden can achieve all this before he leaves his post. The author expresses a personal opinion that may not coincide with the editorial position.