Bobby Ghosh, Columnist

Will Sanctions Halt Putin’s Advance in Ukraine?

Having escalated the crisis by recognizing two separatist republics, the Russian president will find it hard to back down.

February 22, 2022 at 7:33 PM UTC

By Bobby Ghosh

Bobby Ghosh is a senior editor in the digital weekend team. Previously, he was a columnist at Bloomberg Opinion, where he wrote mostly about international affairs and culture.

Selling it to his people.
Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

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In response to President Vladimir Putin’s latest provocation in Ukraine — his recognition of the two self-proclaimed separatist republics in Luhansk and Donetsk — the U.S. and its allies are lining up punitive sanctions against Russia. But are these strong enough to force Putin to back down? Bloomberg Opinion’s Bobby Ghosh hosted a Twitter Spaces discussion with fellow columnists Clara Ferreira Marques and Andreas Kluth. This is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Bobby Ghosh: The U.S., U.K. and European Union have announced some sanctions. Symbolically just as important, if not more so, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced the suspension of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. But is this the tough response that the West has been warning about in the past couple of weeks?