On February 8, a bipartisan group of senators led by Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) introduced the Russian Sanctions Review Act of 2017. That role is still important, but far less so now that many countries have dismantled the economic sanctions. During periods of strength, Russia’s power and territorial control expands outward only to contract and shrink back during periods of weakness. From that perspective, Moscow’s ascendancy in recent years is simply the predictable swing in the pendulum of Russian power. The gamble failed and in doing so its consequences, economic sanctions, aggravated what was already a steep economic contraction.

Source: Huffington Post March 04, 2017 14:37 UTC