The Western sanction mania against Russia seems to be coming up against the wall of reality. Speaking to reporters on Nov. 12 before the summit of G7 foreign ministers in Canada, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said: “Well, there’s not a lot left to sanction from our part, I mean, we hit their major oil companies, which is what everybody’s been asking for.… But I don’t know what more there is to do.” While he didn’t admit that the policy of sanctions has largely failed—causing more damage to the economies of Europe than to Russia’s by far—this is nonetheless an interesting admission.
Rubio added that part of the problem lies with the fuller implementation of the already-existing sanctions, and pointed to the Europeans as a place where further enforcement is needed, for example, with regard to Russia’s shadow oil tankers.
