Sanctions against Russia not the best way

WESTERN governments from the United States to Europe have responded to Moscow's takeover of Crimea by slapping sanctions on individuals from both Russia and Ukraine, specifically through visa bans and asset freezes. These sanctions may be expanded to target specific areas of the economy, including financial services, energy, metals and mining. The international community's immediate priorities should be to calm the situation in Ukraine and send a strong signal to President Vladimir Putin that will deter him from expanding his plans to the rest of Ukraine and other eastern European countries, if indeed there are such plans. Economic sanctions, even if morally justified, may not be as effective in achieving these aims as the international community may hope.

For one thing, while economic sanctions may hurt a country's economy and damage its links to the global financial and business networks, history has proved that autocratic governments can still stubbornly ride through these sanctions for decades - Libya (for more than 20 years), North Korea (for over six decades) and Myanmar (for more than 20 years) offersuch examples. If these developing countries could survive sanctions, then there is little reason why an economically and geopolitically powerful Russia would not. Washington frequently cites Iran as a successful and recent example of why the economic sanctions tool should not be abandoned to achieve political aims. But there are stark differences between Iran and Russia, which casts doubts on whether sanctions can be used as a blanket policy against all perceived "rogue" or "internationally divergent" countries.

Unlike Iran, and even Myanmar, which were not as plugged into the global economy, Russia is very much integrated. As such, it may be difficult to isolate it economically, without damage to an already weak global economy. Europe, in particular, has deep and extensive economic links with Russia, particularly within the energy sector. Europe needs Russia as a major source of energy and minerals as much as Russia needs Europe as a market. Unless the US can replace the Russians in this equation, which seems a far-fetched possibility at least in the short term, economic sanctions against Russia's energy supply could be a bitter pill for an ailing European economy to swallow. Other eastern European countries which also have dense trade links with Russia will also feel the pain of any economic sanctions applied on Moscow.