The current crop of supposedly “strong” sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine are a joke, amounting to little more than light wrist-slaps. They have no immediate consequences, and only mildly restrictive future consequences. Here are ten proposals for immediately meaningful sanctions.
In the US:
1. Freeze all Russian state assets in the US and its territories.
2. Freeze all Russian business assets and ban all business transactions with Russian businesses by US nationals or companies.
3. Freeze all assets of all Russian nationals who are not legal, US residents and expel them from the United States.
4. Ban all Russian ships and aircraft from all US ports and airports. Seize any non-complying ships and aircraft. (It will be very hard for them to leave, as they cannot buy fuel in the US per #2 above.)
5. Ban all Russian nationals from entering the United States.
6. Withdraw all US diplomats from Russia. Expel all Russian diplomats and staff except for one Russian ambassador. He can cook for himself. Confine him to the Russian Embassy, with no more than three military guards and no other staff.
In the UN:
7. Enforce the UN Charter provisions regarding what happens when a country ceases to exist. The USSR ceased to exist in 1991. Russia must apply for UN membership, just as all the other states in the former USSR had to do.
8. Declare the former Soviet Union’s Security Council seat void, since the country no longer exists. Russia can no longer be considered a Security Council member, and has no veto nor vote in the Security Council. Since Russia would no longer be a member of the UN, their UN delegation would be expelled from the US, and no new, Russian delegation would be permitted to enter the US to present credentials, unless invited to do so by the Security Council, which the US would veto.
9. Declare UN military sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, as was done when North Korea invaded South Korea and started the Korean War.
10. Propose the UN recognize Chechnya as an independent country. Authorize UN member nations to provide economic and military assistance to Chechnya and Georgia.
COLLATERAL DAMAGE:
1. Russia will probably respond with similar sanctions against US government, business, and personal assets and personnel. Warn all US citizens to avoid travel to Russia and its client states. Warn all US and allied shippers, airlines, and other companies that the US will not protect their interests in Russia. US tourists and missionaries should be discouraged from visiting Russia for their own safety.
2. Other countries may seek to profit by acting as brokers for Russia. The US should consider similar sanctions against countries violating US/Russia sanctions. Foreign individuals violating such sanctions should be expelled from the US, regardless of their nationality. US nationals violating these sanctions should face lengthy federal prison terms.
3. US or UN-chartered aid shipments to Chechnya will probably be stopped by Russian military. They would have to transit Georgia. The Georgian government might grant permission if UN countries sent military aid to kick the Russian military out of the parts of Georgia that they currently occupy. Such aid might be staged in Turkey, especially if NATO were to approve Turkish membership (despite Turkey’s abysmal human rights record). This would doubtless infuriate Russia.
4. It may be noted that these sanctions are “warlike”. But they stop short of actual invasion, unlike Russia’s treatment of Ukraine. They are strong sanctions, but not quite acts of war. They give the message that Putin’s actual war of conquest against an independent nation will not be tolerated by the rest of the world.
