James Gibney, Columnist

Sanction Russia? Reagan Tried It With No Luck

For lessons on how not to sanction Russia, go back to the 1981-82 fight over the Siberian Gas Pipeline.

March 17, 2014 at 12:52 PM UTC

James Gibney is an editor for Bloomberg Opinion. Previously an editor at the Atlantic, the New York Times, Smithsonian, Foreign Policy and the New Republic, he was also in the U.S. Foreign Service from 1989 to 1997 in India, Japan and Washington.

Would Europe have been better off without it? Photographer: Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr./Bloomberg — Would Europe have been better off without it? Photographer: Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr./Bloomberg

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As the U.S. and the European Union consider the expansion of sanctions against Russia for its likely annexation of Crimea, a potential Santayana moment looms: in this case, a possible repeat of the imbroglio that ensued in 1981-82 between the U.S. and Europe over the building of the Soviet Union's Siberian Gas Pipeline. It's an episode with sobering lessons for both sides.

At the time, the deal to build a 3,000-mile pipeline to bring Siberian gas to Europe was the biggest East-West project yet undertaken. European leaders saw it as a chance to diversify Europe's energy sources away from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries while advancing Ostpolitik -- the German strategy of engagement with the USSR.