Pain Point: Sanctions Starting To Be Felt Everywhere

Pain Point: Sanctions Starting To Be Felt Everywhere

SOLEDAR, UKRAINE - FEBRUARY 27: Soldiers in the Ukrainian Army (Photo by Scott Peterson/Getty ... [+] Images) The United States is bringing a new round of sanctions targeting Russian financial institutions and Kremlin officials and their family members — even Putin's daughters. As is always the case with blunt instruments like sanctions, the full effects are difficult to gauge. They may not alter Putin's military strategy in Ukraine, but the more costly the Ukraine war is for him, the more likely the threat of sanctions deters similar actions in the future. Either way, leaders will have to be especially thoughtful in the ways they target and measure any actions they take. The EU and G7 are implementing new sanctions on Russian state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and investment in Russia. The White House says these additional measures will "degrade key instruments of Russian state power." SOEs and government agencies are key players in the market, the economy, and in society for an authoritarian government. When you start stripping away their ability to leverage that power over the people, you inherently handicap the regime. The effects will take time to be realized, though. We are seeing that the more power Putin loses, the