Russian President Vladimir Putin

Today, President Biden and many other world leaders have unified around some policies to counter Russian President Vladimir Putin's despotism. Sanctions and ...

I’ve begun to believe that the balance of relative power comes from the great democratization of voice amplification in cyberspace. His power relative to the rest of the world may have suffered, but his power on the island increased. The idea is to anger the elites so the price of their loyalty increases while supporting civil society, further decreasing the relative wealth of the autocrat. But the non-military policy options in 2022 far exceed those of the 1990s. It compels his loyalists to talk to the boss about changing his behavior. He used this increase in relative power to purchase the loyalty of other elites and, through further oppression, limit civil society organizing and protesting. According to my colleague Juan Zarate, the U. S. and Europe have unleashed historic sanctions against Russian banks, Russian companies and dozens of Russian elites. After many passionate sanctions debates throughout the 1990s, which I took part in as a U. S. Senate staffer and then authored a book on the topic, the policies changed. The sanctioning of the oil and gas industries, despite possible global inflationary impact, is now being debated. Focusing on the scope of sanctions, however, is like losing sight of the target when nocking an arrow into the bow. On “Channel One Russia,” a news editor struck a blow against Putin, and the world saw her. U. S. presidents have sought the ouster of other world leaders in the past.