'Mr. Biden and Mr. Blinken, who traveled to a NATO meeting last week, have been working to convince European nations, starting with Germany, that a clear warning to Mr. Putin is needed.''Mr. Burns was sent in part because he was the American ambassador to Moscow during Mr. Putin’s rise to power and is well known to Russian officials. But his warnings to the Russian leader, whom he reportedly spoke to by phone, appear to have been largely ignored, officials say.
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Mr. Biden must convince Mr. Putin that the administration’s commitment to Ukraine, which it has called “unshakable,” is deep enough to cause tremendous economic pain to Russia — even if, as both men know, American forces would not come directly to Ukraine’s aid. Under discussion are steps as extreme as cutting off Russia’s access to the international financial settlement system, called SWIFT, and a series of restrictions on its banks like those honed in the effort to impose sanctions on Iran.
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..other officials said they were already seeing heightened cyberaction, and some officials recalled that Russia cut off the electric power to two parts of Ukraine in past years — and most likely had the capability for further disruptions now.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Blinken, who traveled to a NATO meeting last week, have been working to convince European nations, starting with Germany, that a clear warning to Mr. Putin is needed. The effort is to present Mr. Putin with a united front, and persuade him that the sanctions he would suffer would be widely enforced.
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A declassified assessment disclosed by the Biden administration late last week, in an effort to shore up opposition inside Russia to Mr. Putin’s plans, suggested that by January he may have as many as 175,000 troops on the border — up from roughly 100,000 now. But some military and intelligence officials believe that the figure may go higher, as Mr. Putin distributes his forces in a way to suggest he could try a three-sided “pincer” invasion of the country.
In the briefing for reporters, the senior administration official also said there had been a “significant spike in social media pushing Russian propaganda” that followed the pattern of Russian actions in 2014, just before the invasion and annexation of Crimea.'
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The conflict in Ukraine will be a major topic..', December 6, 2021
'Russia is a problem to be managed pragmatically and with coolheaded realism.''This paper explains why Russia and China’s economic cooperation plans have failed since 2014..''..Marine Bangs Drum for Investing in Nonlethal Weapons''..Ukraine .. institutionalizing the country’s place within the West.''A critical examination of U.S. policy misfires in dealing with Russia and its intentions and capabilities over the past several decades is long overdue..'