It is time for President Joe Biden to use one countermeasure to Russia’s military menace at the Ukraine border that he has so far failed to deploy. It’s way past time, in fact.
But luckily there is still time for America’s president to shift into his people gear and deliver a straight-talk message that can prove meaningful to its prime target — not Russia’s president, but Russia’s people.
So far, Biden has made clear in his public statements that if Russia invades Ukraine, the United States and its NATO allies will retaliate with “severe economic sanctions” — that’s typical government-to-government dugout chatter. And when Biden has sought to humanize his threat, the human he chose was Putin: “He’s never seen sanctions like the ones I promised will be imposed if he moves.”
