Boris Johnson’s sanctions tread on almost no one’s toes
IF you’re going to talk the talk, you better be able to walk the walk; it is a helplessly overused cliché, but as Boris Johnson tries to assert a firm hand of Global Britain with economic sanctions against Russia, it is the simplest words that ring true.
Over the last few weeks, the prime minister has danced and obfuscated around allegations of egregious rule breaking in No10 by pivoting to tough rhetoric on the Ukraine crisis. Now the chickens have come home to roost.
Last weekend, Johnson vowed to make Putin “pay” for any further aggression.
On Tuesday, he introduced what have been slammed as impotent economic sanctions against Russia on a handful of banks, and three oligarchs, who had already been sanctioned in 2018 by the US.
It was playing catch-up.
It’s unclear what the Prime Minister hoped to achieve with the sanctions. If he truly believed there was an opportunity to talk Putin down from the edge, it makes sense to keep hold of tougher sanctions to dangle like a knife over the Russian autocrat’s head if he moves further. But the first tranche must be tough enough for Putin to take notice. Even if the initial set are swiftly followed, it looks as if we were only just testing the water.
The Prime Minister’s restraint suggest he knew Putin would plunge further into the Donbas region, beyond the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. What happens after that is murkier. As soon as skirmishes break out between the Ukrainians and the Russians, it will quickly descend into a horrifyingly bloody war. The separatists had previously formed a kind of buffer between Russia and Ukraine, when that is gone, holding Putin back will require incredible – perhaps impossible – international heft.
Whether the prime minister or other western allies anticipated the speed at which Putin would launch missiles directly on Kiev is unclear. By the frailty of the first set of sanctions, it looks as if we were taken by surprise.
With the amount of Russian money which bathes London’s streets, Johnson is in a more interesting position than other financial capitals. He has a unique opportunity to truly cut off Putin’s cronies safe haven of money. Under the flagship policy of Global Britain Johnson was elected on, he should seize the chance to show the influence he can have on the world stage.
If Johnson believed the fight to pull Putin back was already lost and his plans were a ball we can’t stop rolling, then he should have made sure the economic pain is felt immediately.