This is the perfect time to make Putin feel more pain

Date 2017/6/19 0:11:48 | Topic: Opinion

Russian regimes will always have Western apologists, dupes and, not least, sentimentalists who idealize the bygone Russia of Tolstoy and Chekhov, of Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. But that Russia’s gone, and it can never return. Stalin destroyed its DNA in the gulag or drove it into exile. In place of Pushkin, today’s Russians get Putin. 

 


Opinion by  Ralph Peters in the New York Post

June 15, 2017 | 8:43pm

 

Wednesday’s appalling attack on members of Congress obscured an important vote on Capitol Hill. In rare bipartisan spirit, the Senate approved new and intensified sanctions on Russia’s dictatorship, 98-2.

 

The House may vote to approve the overall bill — which also includes new sanctions on Iran — by the end of the week. Then it’ll be up to the president either to sign the bill and punish our enemies, or to veto it.

 

He would be wise to sign it promptly, for three reasons.

 

First, it’s the right thing to do. Vladimir Putin and his henchmen need to pay a much higher price for their broad and vicious assault on our elections — as well as for Putin’s bloody, ongoing mischief in Crimea, eastern Ukraine, Georgia, Syria and Afghanistan; for his support of Iran’s terrorism in the Middle East; and for his subversion of the European Union and NATO-member states.

 

Oh, and the guy murders opposition leaders and journalists.

 

Putin isn’t our potential ally. He’s all evil, all the time.

 

Second, signing the bill would spare the president the embarrassment of having his veto overridden, which seems all but a certainty, given the Senate vote.

Third, and not least, signing Russia’s punishment into law would help dispel concerns about the president’s relationship with Putin.

 

The Russia part of the bill isn’t as strong as some would have liked. But it toughens existing sanctions and imposes new ones that will bite. And Congress will have to vote before sanctions are lifted. Not least, the language gives federal investigators greater authority to target cheaters and identify sanctions-evading behavior by banks.

 

[…]

http://nypost.com/2017/06/15/this-is- ... ake-putin-feel-more-pain/

 





This article comes from Ukraine Business Online
http://www.ukrainebusiness.com.ua

The URL for this story is:
http://www.ukrainebusiness.com.ua/modules/news/article.php?storyid=18793