There’s always an excuse for the failures of Joe Biden, even when it comes to Russian energy. As the country continues to buy nearly 600,000 barrels of Russia oil every day, left wing Politico has already come up with excuses as to why.
President Joe Biden and his European allies could take one move to strike at the heart of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime and its wealth: Imposing direct sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas industry.
But that move could trigger an energy crisis that cripples their economies, threatens their own grip on power and perhaps even enriches Putin in bigger ways.
The risk of economic and political blowback is stymieing U.S. and European allies hitting Putin with the kinds of restrictions they used on Iran over the past decade. It shows how reliance on oil imports and worries about rising gasoline prices continue to constrain Washington’s action in international crises — even after the U.S. has emerged as an energy powerhouse in its own right and has made progress in moving toward greener sources like wind and solar.