Sanctions May Sound “Nonviolent,” But They Quietly Hurt the Most Vulnerable

People all over the globe are aware of the benefits of technology today. demonstratingProtest against the Russian invasion and occupation of Ukraine, and a united front against any expansion or escalation of war by other global powers.

The current invasion is raising a dilemma for progressives in the U.S. who are sympathetic to the plight of the people of Ukraine, who believe that the invasion is abhorrent and unacceptable, and who want to stop Russia’s actions, but who question the notion that the U.S. can intervene in a way that is ultimately good and not harmful.

We are currently faced with the dilemma of whether or not to support economic sanctions against Russia. Those of us who are struggling with this question have every right to be skeptical.

If there was ever any hope for tight sanctions targeting President Vladimir Putin, and other members of Russia’s oligarchy, it has now evaporated. In the immediate days after the invasion began, the U.S. coordinated with the European Union, Japan and Canada to sanction Russia’s Central Bank and exclude Russia’s banks from SWIFT, the world’s primary inter-bank communication and currency exchange system. The result was a collapse of the Russian ruble. Individuals are lining up at ATMs and banks in Russia’s cities as they lose access to cash and see their savings threatened overnight.

Of course, those who have the fewest resources to survive in Russia — not the most powerful — will be hurt the most.

This was completely predictable. As London-based financier and campaigner against Putin’s government Bill Browder told NPR about blocking Russia from SWIFT, “This is what was done against Iran. And it basically knocks them — any country that’s disconnected — back to the Dark Ages economically.”

Browder casually mentions the devastating impact of sanctions on Iran. Ostensibly meant to target the country’s regime for nefarious activities, U.S. sanctions have resulted in such isolation for the Iranian economy that the currency has crashed. The sanctions have had a severe impact on Iranian health care. undermining the country’s ability to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, and producing shortages of medicines and medical supplies, particularly for people with rare illnesses.This means that it is the most vulnerable who have suffered most.

The experience of U.S. sanctions’ impacts around the world is important, especially because Washington and other Western capitals hold up sanctions as an alternative to war. We need to understand them as a weapon of warfare. They can cause widespread suffering which may be more subtle or less visible to the U.S. than an attack or airstrikes, but it is still very deadly.

The U.S. has also tended to combineSanctions policy With military operations — particularly in Iraq and Iran. In 1991, the United States invaded Iraq and imposed economic sanctions. The U.S. invaded again in 2003. Between the invasions, the U.S. bombarded Iraq intermittently while maintaining the status quo. sanctions — which led to the malnourishment of hundreds of thousands of children, promoted infectious disease outbreaks and disproportionately impacted people with disabilities in Iraq. And when Donald Trump unleashed his “maximum pressure” sanctions on Iran, he did so while stationing aircraft carriers off of Iran’s coast and repeatedly threatening airstrikes.

The fact is that sanctions against Iraq in the past, Iran today, and perhaps Russia now, were designed to inflict harm on those countries’ populations with the objective of “regime change.” The sanitized term refers to actions of a government to change who is in power in another country. To inflict misery on the people they are targeting, the U.S. uses economic sanctions. This is not only antidemocratic but it is also historically ineffective. After the 1959 Revolution victory in Cuba, the U.S. has maintained economic sanctions against Cuba, for instance, since 1960. Although the Cuban Revolution brought the government to power, it remains today. However, generations of Cubans have suffered from the U.S. embargo.

It is likely that Russia’s leaders will use economic sanctions to punish ordinary citizens for their crimes. But there is an additional danger with a broader and more lasting impact: that the U.S. and its allies will take the opportunity of using sanctions in response to Putin’s invasion to re-legitimize the use of sanctions in general. If the policy of sanctions gets a new lease on life, the U.S. will continue to deploy it against countries — and most will have fewer resources than Russia doesTo mitigate the effects.

As those who want a more just world, it makes sense that we may feel pushed to support U.S. sanctions against Russia in the hope that it will force some restraint on Putin’s aggression. Unfortunately, the historic and current examples of U.S. sanctions regimes — and the sorts of sanctions that we are already seeing take shape in Western responses to Moscow’s invasion and their impacts — compel us to take a stance that is fundamentally critical of Washington’s use of sanctions rather than hopeful that they will benefit the people of Ukraine and the cause of peace.

We are called instead to find and create our own ways of building solidarity with Ukrainians, and be clear in demanding that our sympathies are not manipulated to build up U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) militarism — an outcome that will only produce more hardship. We should actually demand the U.S. and NATO demilitarization of Eastern Europe if we want them to respond to the crisis in the region. There is absolutely no justification for Putin’s actions against Ukraine. However, it is true that the U.S. keeps nuclear weapons on the continent. In fact, the U.S. has been increasing the militarization East Europe in particular in recent decades. This includes opening a new naval basePoland, where a NATO missile systems will be housed. This militarism only escalates tensions. Right now, Ukraine’s people are paying the price.

We can draw tremendous inspiration from the outpourings of protest when we find our own voice. dissentIn Russian cities, in solidarity with Ukrainians and against the war. Our challenge is to build protest across borders that stands in solidarity with those facing the violence of war, and is independent — and defiant of — the governments where we reside.