Member-only story
Please Help Pakistan Flood Victims
Historic flooding has already displaced over 10 million people.
As the world continues to grapple with the aftermath and ongoing impact of a global pandemic, we seem to be inheriting a new world of disorder and chaos.
The economic fallout from COVID19 continues to set some of the world’s largest economies atremble. Inflation is biting consumers on three continents, the financial markets aren’t faring much better, and an energy crisis is looming over the European Union.
At a time when the world least needed a military invasion, battle, or war, Russian President Vladimir Putin thumbed his nose at our collective COVID19 recovery process and invaded the Ukraine in February.
Sanctions and embargoes have since had a limited negative impact on the Russian economy. Lacking the wherewithal for war at the moment, to say nothing of the democratic public support for more foreign wars a la Afghanistan or Iraq, responsible world leaders from the White House to Parliament to Brussels did the only thing they could do.
The purpose of sanctions and embargoes against Russian President Vladimir Putin was to inspire the Russian people to depose him. With direct military hostilities off the table, it seemed reasonable.