Biden tailors Russia sanctions to avoid blowback as he seeks a fine balance in ties

WASHINGTON • US President Joe Biden delivered on a vow to punish Russia for misconduct that he says went ignored under his predecessor. But for all the tough talk, Mr Biden's move showed he is still holding out hope for better ties with Moscow.

The sanctions announced on Thursday included limits on buying new sovereign debt, expulsion of diplomats and restrictions on Russian companies said to provide support to Russian hacking operations.

Underpinning it all was an executive order giving the United States authority to act again if Russia doesn't stop behaviour such as election interference and cyber attacks.

Behind the enterprise - the result of a three-month review of Russian misdeeds - was a careful calibration: Although the administration portrayed the sanctions as severe, they weren't the knockout blow that some American lawmakers and advocacy groups had been hoping for after years of Russian misdeeds and former president Donald Trump's deference to President Vladimir Putin.

That reflected a wariness of potential economic blowback and also, according to some experts, the belief that wiping the slate clean in a burst of action was what's needed and now could lead to more stable ties with Moscow.

"You start going after an economy like Russia, you realise the collateral consequences of getting this wrong are outrageous," said Mr Adam Smith, a former senior adviser in the Treasury Department's sanctions unit and now a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. "It's not just that they want to get it right, they don't want to be rash."

In a speech to the nation on Thursday, Mr Biden said he was fulfilling a vow to punish Russia for misdeeds, but did not want to "kick off a cycle of escalation" that would prevent the two nations from working together.

"I was clear with President Putin that we could have gone further, but I chose not to do so, I chose to be proportionate," Mr Biden said, referring to a call with the Russian leader earlier this week.

"Throughout our long history of competition, our two countries have been able to find ways to manage tensions and to keep them from escalating out of control."

The Kremlin signalled that it was still open to a White House offer of a presidential summit - which Mr Biden said would be held in Europe - and largely shrugged off the sanctions.

Investors seemed relieved, as the rouble and Russian bonds recovered some of their early losses by the end of the day in Moscow. Mr Biden also said that he has more measures to pressure Russia at his disposal, but that he's more interested in building a "stable, predictable relationship" with Moscow.

Still expected are sanctions aimed at blocking the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany. Mr Biden said that is still an "issue that is in play".

One senior US official said the challenge all along had been on establishing deterrence - stopping Russia from repeating misdeeds - instead of punishing past actions piecemeal, as Mr Trump's administration did, often under pressure from Congress.

Domestic politics also played a role: Mr Biden had announced a review of Russia policy on his first day in office.

The new administration wanted to send a signal that there would be no repeat of the Helsinki summit where Mr Trump stood alongside Mr Putin and seemed to back the Russian leader's denials of interference in US elections despite what his intelligence agencies had found.

This sanctions package was especially delicate because it comes as the Treasury Department is conducting what it calls a top-to-bottom review of US sanctions programmes to ensure that they remain "impactful and effective".

The administration contends that Thursday's Russia sanctions managed to set the right balance.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said in Brussels on Wednesday that Washington seeks "open lines of communication" with Moscow in order to be "very clear about our views, about our policies, about our objections to Russia's actions".

NYTIMES