Obama threatens Putin

[fskimospy]

And Obama does want a gas war? You can argue that Russia would be hurt "more" by effective Russian energy sanctions than would the US or EU, but either way it's not a credible threat since there's zero chance Obama will carry it out. Mutually assured destruction may work as a deterrent but we're beyond that stage now. Obama and NATO aren't going to severely damage their own economies to that extent for the sake of some very small amount of geopolitical leverage on the Ukraine issue. I may disagree with some of Obama's policies but I give him credit for being a smart man and he's certainly not dumb enough to do something like that.

Why wouldn't Obama carry it out? The US gets very little of its oil and gas from Russia. The same reason why the US wouldn't be too concerned about sanctioning Russia's energy sector is the same reason why it wouldn't be that effective for the US to do though, we simply aren't their customers. That part is up to the EU.

 

[glenn1]

Why wouldn't Obama carry it out? The US gets very little of its oil and gas from Russia. The same reason why the US wouldn't be too concerned about sanctioning Russia's energy sector is the same reason why it wouldn't be that effective for the US to do though, we simply aren't their customers. That part is up to the EU.

Mostly agree and my statements have been premised on sanctions including the EU. U.S. only sanctions would be more of an annoyance to both U.S. and Russia than anything which makes me wonder why you even support them since they'd be more symbolic than effective. It seems to me that pushing Russian energy exports towards China outweighs any benefits the sanctions might bring from a U.S. policy perspective. I would say that Obama proceding with unilateral sactions would likely put pressure on his admin to approve the Keystone XL pipeline and support fracking and other production measures than he might otherwise.