Cailian, we could say that sanctions were politically possible, and although record-breaking, they amount to a weak response to Putin's invasion of a sovereign country. A better action was to treat Ukraine as part of NATO and when Putin's intentions were confirmed,

the West assembled all the necessary forces to counter a possible invasion. This was not a surprise invasion.

This would have taken superlative leadership from Biden, which was asking too much. The big obstacle was that the American public trust in such an adventure had already been spent on Afghanistan and Iraq.

But the sanctions themselves were poorly executed. They should have used them to PROTECT Ukraine and not PUNISH Russia. In other words, to maximize their use, they needed to apply BEFORE Putin's assault and in FULL FORCE and not in responsive escalation.

Many thanks. Best to you.

Hossein Askari wrote an excellent article “Economic Sanctions Reset”.