John Smith spoke to Foreign Policy about the U.S. warning Russia of devastating economic sanctions, including potentially kicking Russia off of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), should Russia invade Ukraine.
“In essence, [we're] telling Putin that if you’re going to wage a war militarily, we’re going to wage a war economically,” John said.
Another potential option would be to sanction Russian oligarchs, who benefit from and help prop up the Putin system, in a bid to pile pressure on the Kremlin. “You want to peel off those supporters one by one,” John added. “You want to increasingly pressure a regime to change its behavior by picking off those people who support the regime.”
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