Our view: Push back against Putin’s aggression in Ukraine
Much like any schoolyard bully, Russian President Vladimir Putin keeps pushing the limits as long as no one pushes back.
The strongman’s most recent provocation came three weeks ago, when Russian military ships rammed, fired upon and seized three Ukrainian naval vessels in international waters near a shipping strait linking the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov. Two dozen Ukrainian sailors were captured and remain in Russian captivity.
Putin dreams of restoring lost glory after the Soviet Union’s collapse. For a gambler with a relatively weak hand — the dictator leads a nation with an economy smaller than that of California, Texas or New York — he has engineered more than his share of international havoc by:
❚ Illegally seizing Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and invading the nation's eastern frontier. For months this year, Russia has effectively blockaded Ukrainian ports on the Sea of Azov.
❚ Sending troops into Syria in 2015 to prop up a brutal dictator and help slaughter thousands of civilians in besieged Aleppo.
❚ Dispensing agents armed with a rare nerve agent to try to poison an exRussian spy in England.
❚ Employing cyber tools and disinformation to influence elections and governing across Europe.
❚ Perhaps most spectacularly, deploying trolls, hackers and spies to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
The United States has responded by sanctioning Russian individuals and companies, expelling diplomats and selling lethal weapons to Ukraine. President Donald Trump canceled a meeting with Putin at the recent G20 summit.
But for reasons that special counsel Robert Mueller might someday (soon?) help Americans understand, Trump has remained oddly deferential toward Putin. Even after last month’s Black Sea violence, Trump equivocated, saying that “we do not like what’s happening either way.” Either way?
More can be done to rebuff Putin without risking war.
For starters, the United States and its NATO allies should press Russia to release the Ukrainian sailors and ships, and to allow freedom-of-the-seas passage for Ukrainian shipping.
NATO could increase the number of ships patrolling the Black Sea, and the United States could sell Ukraine antiship cruise missiles for its defense.
Polish President Andrzej Duda has long sought a permanent U.S. military presence, and a joint NATO base for that area that includes a U.S. armored division would send a strong message to Moscow.
An even tougher step would be to ban Russian banks from the worldwide interbank transfer system known as SWIFT, one of the most severe sanctions possible.
Putin is again testing the West. Given his record of aggression, he won’t stop until and unless there’s pushback and pain.