Washington's strategy based on "intimidation" of Russia through the imposition of new sanctions is a failure, as the United States does not have "effective weapons", writes The Hill political columnist Avraham Shama.

“In the past, such measures were ineffective. Under their pressure, Putin did not change his foreign policy. And it is unlikely that this time they will give a different result, ”he said.

According to Sham, the US may apply economic sanctions. At the same time, there is another threat to Moscow. So, among the new sanctions may be "a large-scale cyber attack on Russian air and land transport systems, communications, including the Internet, radio and television, banks and stock markets," the expert noted.

However, according to the author of the article, Russia has sufficient resources in the field of cybersecurity to respond to the United States in a similar way.

At the moment, Russian President Vladimir Putin has the upper hand due to the inability of the US to pose any danger to the Kremlin, and will also be the winner no matter how the security guarantee negotiations turn out, Shama concluded.

On January 12, a group of US senators introduced a bill on new sanctions against Russia in the event of a further aggravation of the crisis in Ukraine. The document provides for a ban on operations with Russia's primary and secondary public debt, sanctions against the country's banking sector, high-ranking military and government officials. They also proposed, in the event of an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, to introduce restrictive measures against Russian President Vladimir Putin, the heads of the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Defense and the chief of the General Staff.

bbabo.Net