It is interesting that Biden did not initially sanction Putin.

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/24/politics/joe-biden-ukraine-russia-sanctions/index.html

It is interesting that Biden did not initially sanction Putin. While hurting the Russian economy may eventually affect Putin, wouldn’t directly sanctioning him have a more immediate impact? If you blame him solely for the attack on Ukraine and call it his “choice”, wouldn’t you want to affect him instantly, directly?

This article points out how Biden was “mindful” that the new sections would have on energy prices. Biden also promised to “limit the pain the American people are feeling at the gas pump”. How can be continuously blame higher prices on Putin?

Biden also inferred that he has not underestimated Putin and knows “He wants to, in fact, reestablish he former Soviet Union”. Wouldn’t that include The Baltics, Latvia and Lithuania? Wouldn’t that enact Article 5 of NATO? Shouldn’t we want to prevent that? Instead of saying, welp Putin is going to do what Putin is going to do, can’t we say if Putin does this, THIS is what we are going to do?

Direct Quotes:

President Joe Biden on Thursday unveiled harsh new sanctions on Russia meant to punish the country for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, calling out Russian President Vladimir Putin for his aggression even as he acknowledged it would take time for the new measures to alter Putin's behavior.

"Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences," Biden said, laying out a set of measures that will "impose severe cost on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time."

The new sanctions include export blocks on technology, a centerpiece of Biden's approach that he said would severely limit Russia's ability to advance its military and aerospace sector. He also applied sanctions on Russian banks and "corrupt billionaires" and their families who are close to the Kremlin.

Biden insisted his threat to directly sanction Putin remains "on the table" and is "not a blu ," but he didn't answer when asked why he hasn't directly sanctioned the Russian president yet.

He declared the Russian president's actions would "end up costing Russia dearly, economically and strategically."

The new sanctions, the latest US reprisals against Moscow this week, had been reserved as Biden hoped to maintain some leverage in dissuading Putin from a full-scale invasion. But so far, Western threats of economic punishment, as well as Biden's strategy of revealing what the US knew about Putin's buildup of forces to try to make the Russian leader second-guess himself, have proven ineffective.

Biden's sanctions are now meant to punish Putin's actions, rather than prevent them, by going after Russia's economy, its military capabilities and those closest to the Russian president. How much they can alter Putin's decision-making going forward, however, remains an open question.

Mindful of rising gas prices in the United States, Biden also said in his sanctions announcement that he was working to limit the fallout the new sanctions would have on energy prices. He said the US was ready to release barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve alongside its allies.

"I know this is hard and that Americans are already hurting," he said. "I'll do everything in my power to limit the pain the American people are feeling at the gas pump."

Biden also insisted that he hadn't underestimated Putin, saying that "he has much larger ambitions than Ukraine. He wants to, in fact, reestablish the former Soviet Union. That's what this is about."