What is the price for Putin's actions?

[Peninha]

Russia is already suffering heavy economical sanctions, but that doesn't seem to stop him. I don't know if his goal is to rebuild URSS, but there has to be a price for his actions from the international community. What will that be?

 

[orangesunset]

Possibly it might result in another cold war starting up. Putin will try and rile Russians up with patriotism and xenophobia. These things always distract people during economic crisis.

There are still older Russians who remember the Soviet Era so I am not sure if it will work.

 

[DancingLady]

It will probably take internal pressure to stop him at this point. Putin's arrogance has gone so far he is no longer willing to listen to reason. I hope for the sake of the Russian people that they are able to access accurate information and find out what is really happening.

 

[Redheart]

Save for declaring war on Russia [and that's not going to happen] there isn't much the West can do to 'hurt' Russia. Meanwhile, Putin's actions continue to widen the rift between Russia and the West but does he [Putin] care? His focus is the East. Some of the world's largest and fastest growing economies are in Asia. If they [the Russians] can trade with them, do they need the West?

 

[Gabriel]

These were all expected outcomes, except for the ruble losing so much value so quickly. Putin will do what is right for him, they keep relations cordial with the West, but Russia owes nothing to anyone. The fact is many countries run things in a way that the West disapprove of, but that is their country and as long as it doesn't directly affect a home state, one should not interfere.

 

[Bread]

War seems so far fetched, it's possible, but highly unlikely. Technology has advanced too much that a war between the west and Russia, isn't the best idea in the world. Both will lose a lot in the event that it happens, while war is absolutely about losing and no winning economy-wise, no country will get out of it unscathed or with little damage, so no, I don't think they'll do it.

All they can do is put in more sanctions if they can, but then Russia, as stated is more interested in Asia than in the western countries. Therefore giving sanctions is like throwing pebbles at them, they don't care and it doesn't affect Putin as much as they think it does.

 

[003]

Their dominance. Russia is a great country. Even that it's suffering from dire consequences of his action, sanctions put by the international community, it still manages to retain its power and its allies. Russia has a complete different and strong sets of belief from which they draw out their strength. And whatever it's doing, it only becomes a more badass threat to the world, causing the world to give more sanctions. But unfortunately those sanctions only provoke Russia more to be stubborn and unyielding. It only becomes stronger.

 

[Peninha]

I think that stubborn is hardly the word. They must have a very good relation with China to endure these sanctions, so I am wondering what dark plans are behind all this.

 

[Tigoci]

First of all, I'd like to point his out:

What you see in this chart is RUB/USD (Russian Ruble/US Dollar), over the past 10 years. Data by XE
Now what exactly is causing this massive drop in value is certainly subjective, but no one can argue that the western sanctions had no impact on the Russian economy. As stubborn as the Russian government may be, it can't continue a such stand if it ends up eating their economy. After all, there isn't much of a war to be fought with empty pockets, no?
Russia is a both economically and politically strong, and their military power should not be put aside.

 

[kestas57]

Well my view is that Putin is doing most of this to redirect the attention of his own people. What people don't like a bit of war, especially when all of the less educated are essentially brainwashed by his government. Despite this, I think that Putin will keep getting away with actions until he does something really stupid, like actually taking real action against a NATO member, no matter what it is.

 

[xTinx]

Someone mentioned that Russia, despite data provided by the IMF and media reports, remains economically well-off. However, you can look through the data below from atlas.media.mit.edu and ponder whether economic sanctions from other countries will really have no bearing on Russia and its political ambitions:

Top 5 Products exported by Russia
Crude Petroleum (39%), Refined Petroleum (15%), Petroleum Gas (9.1%), Coal Briquettes (3.0%), and Semi-Finished Iron (1.5%)
Top 5 Products imported by Russia
Cars (7.3%), Packaged Medicaments (3.4%), Vehicle Parts (3.2%), Computers (2.2%), and Delivery Trucks (1.4%)
​

What's surprising is that more than 5% of its exports go to Ukraine and more than 5% of its imports also came from the very country they're currently trying to destroy. Even if China is its biggest import-export partner, the Russian economy won't be able to survive on China alone.

 

[zenfive]

I do think that a full out war would be very unlikely, but it is clear that the Russians don't seem like they will be backing down anytime soon. I really don't know what Putin's endgame is but it is clear that they have been hit hard with all the economic sanctions. And I think eventually the people inside the country will also reach a point where they will say enough is enough, and they won't stand for the situation they have been put in.