Bringing a peashooter to a gunfight was how one analyst described the UK’s response to Russia’s renewed aggression towards Ukraine. After President Vladimir Putin ordered “peacekeeping” forces into breakaway Ukrainian regions, the US targeted some of Russia’s largest financial institutions and the EU unveiled measures against 351 members of the Russian parliament, as well as Putin’s defence minister and chief of staff. The UK, meanwhile, announced sanctions on five smallish lenders and three Putin cronies already on the US sanctions list. The underwhelming move has done little to improve the UK’s notoriety for being a hub where money and reputations of oligarchs close to the Kremlin can be laundered. More worryingly, such a paltry salvo risks emboldening Putin’s strategy of coercive diplomacy as Europe grapples with its worst security crisis in a generation.
拿著豌豆射手參加槍戰——一位分析師這樣描述英國對俄羅斯再次侵略烏克蘭的反應。俄羅斯總統弗拉迪米爾•普丁(Vladimir Putin)下令「維和」部隊進入烏克蘭分裂地區後，美國製裁了俄羅斯國內最大的幾家金融機構，歐盟(EU)公佈了針對351名俄羅斯議會議員、以及普丁的國防部長和幕僚長的措施。與此同時，英國宣佈對5家俄羅斯中小銀行和3名普丁親信實施制裁，這三人早在美國製裁名單上。這種不夠有力的措施無助於改善英國的壞名聲——這裏是與克里姆林宮關係密切的寡頭洗白金錢與名譽的中心。更令人擔憂的是，在歐洲努力應對一代人以來最嚴重的安全危機之際，這種不痛不癢的操作可能會助長普丁的脅迫外交策略。