Amid Kremlin Victories, Putin Fails to Persuade West on Sanctions
MOSCOW — From Moscow to Washington to capitals in between, the past few days showcased the way President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia nimbly exploits differences between the United States and its allies — yet also accentuated where he falls short.
President Trump had barely finished catapulting a belligerent tweet and new sanctions at Turkey on Friday before Mr. Putin was on the phone with his Turkish counterpart, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
It was vintage Putin, showcasing an opportunity to divide the West. Yet recent events also highlighted the downside to Mr. Putin’s geopolitical escapades. The Western sanctions he hoped to get lifted have only been tightened, pushing the ruble down to its lowest levels in years.
At home, Mr. Putin’s standing with Russians is suffering.
For all the strategic success Mr. Putin has had — including diminishing NATO and the European Union by bolstering populist
governments in Europe as well as Middle East autocrats — he has failed to persuade or pressure the West to lift successive waves of American and European economic sanctions imposed on Russia since its 2014 annexation of Crimea. In fact, the State Department threatened last week to enact yet another round of such measures, just days after the United States Senate brandished its own.
The European Union, some of whose members had signaled in the past few years that they were ready to consider granting Moscow some relief, has held tough on sanctions, especially in the wake of the British government’s finding that Russia was responsible for an attempted assassination on British soil using a banned nerve agent.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/amid-kremlin-victories-putin-fails-to-persuade-west-on-sanctions/ar-BBLOAz8?li=BBnbcA1