In an address Thursday, President Biden has announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin "chose" this war in the Ukraine, saying his country will bear the consequences of new economic sanctions.
Biden said he believes the sanctions are just as powerful as tanks on the battlefield, but Jason Brooks, KCBS Radio Money Watch Editor and Eastern European studies expert, told Rebecca Corral that may be up for debate.
"They will certainly affect Russia's ability to raise money in a number of areas," Brooks said. "The sanctions are pretty deep, adding several more banks, freezing their assets in the West, prohibiting large corporations in Russia from raising western dollars, limiting the ability for them to raise dollars, euros, pounds and yen and adding more sanctions on elites who've benefited from Russia's policies."
Biden also cut off half of high-tech imports into Russia, which will impact the military, however, the sanctions failed to cover some important areas.
So far there are no sanctions on Russian oil exports and no mention of SWIFT, the international communications system for banks to talk with each other before they finalize financial transactions. Biden said the additional sanctions on those banks in Russia are just as powerful, but many say that SWIFT is more important. Lastly, missing a big mark, there have been no sanctions yet called against Vladimir Putin.
"We've talked to a number of experts who say that the best move is for the U.S. to gradually impose these sanctions, otherwise if you fire them all off in one shot you've got nothing left in your armory. That's obviously the strategy being employed right now by the White House," Brooks explained.
As Ukraine is not a part of NATO, there will be no United States troops going into Ukraine at this moment. "It's simply unthinkable that Russia and NATO would get involved directly," Brooks said.
Biden was clear that the U.S. will defend "every inch of NATO," referring to the Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, as well as Poland, Romania and Hungary, which are all countries on the front line.
Brooks estimated that the world will see a large ramp-up in the fighting overnight. There are multiple reports that Ukraine has stopped Russia's advance in several areas, including in the East near Donbas.
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