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Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Glennos1

Er is immers nog weinig ruimte voor nog meer sancties, en met de energiecrisis kan Poetin ons in de EU nog meer pijn doen, sterker nog... de EU dreigt plots zelf de gaskraan dicht te doen en met blackouts en torenhoge gas en elektriciteitskosten te zitten?

Nee hoor, als er sancties a la "Iran" op tafel liggen is dat wel degelijk een bijzonder zwaar wapen dat de Russische economie kan kraken.
Uiteraard zal Rusland dan dreigen zijn energiewapen te gebruiken door de gaskraan dicht te draaien (daarom is een Russische invasie in de wintermaanden het waarschijnlijkst), maar als ze dat doen taxeren ze vrij zwaar Nordstream2 dat dan effectief riskeert van gedumpt te worden met alle gevolgen van dien.

Een nieuwe, tweede Russische invasie van Oekraiene zou Rusland gigantisch veel kosten, economisch en in politiek kapitaal.

Edward Fishman, non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said: “There is much room left for ratcheting up economic pressure against Moscow, should the Biden administration opt to do so.

“Current sanctions against Russia are light-touch; if Iran sanctions are a 10 out of 10 in intensity, today’s Russia sanctions are perhaps a two or a three,” Fishman said. “Not a single major state-owned Russian company is under full-blocking sanctions.”

The menu of possibilities for economic measures is extensive.

The bond market
In April, the US issued a ban on US financial institutions buying new issues of Russian government bonds, which had negligible effect. Washington could go much further and sanction the secondary market in Russian bonds, where they are resold and packaged with other investments.

Nord Stream 2
The gas pipeline from Russia to northern Europe has been completed, but it has not been certified for use by the German energy regulator. Members of the new German government coalition have expressed scepticism about the project, and it is possible it would be cancelled altogether in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Sanctions on Russian corporations and banks
“The Biden administration could impose full-blocking sanctions on large Russian banks, energy companies, or defense firms … or impose sweeping prohibitions on investment and provision of services to conventional Russian oil projects,” Fishman said. Two possible financial targets are the huge VTB Bank, and Gazprombank.

Sanctions on oligarchs and their families
The US treasury has been hesitant to impose sanctions on Russian oligarchs, after measures taken against Oleg Deripaska had an impact on the activities of his aluminum company, Rusal, in Ireland, causing a major rift with Dublin. In the wake of an invasion, Congress is likely to add more Putin-friendly oligarchs to a blacklist to be appended to the defence budget. Family members of Putin’s circle could also be more extensively targeted.

Swift
The biggest stick in Biden’s arsenal is the threat to have Russia excluded from the global electronic payment system, Swift, based in Belgium. It was one of the most crippling measures used against Iran, and would make Russia a pariah in international finance. Åslund described the weapon as “the sledge hammer”, possibly to be used as a last resort.