How Should We Punish Putin and Russia?

My proposal is to prohibit Russian nationals from owning US property worth more than $250,000 (or some limit). This will serve a few purposes.

Apparently, wealthy Russians (and Chinese, Arabs, and others) buy US property as investments and to launder money. They often don’t reside in these homes which are empty most of the time. This artificially drives up real estate prices and creates affordable housing shortages.

By implementing this change, prices will fall, a little. More property will become available for US residents. And it hits the Russians where it counts, in the wallet. And it’s not a hot war.

Is there any reason that this wouldn’t be effective?

Block Russia and all CIS countries from the US segment of the internet.

Close all consulates in all CIS counties.

End all student & business visas.

All non citizen CIS citizens get 90 days to wrap up their affairs and leave the US

Move to cut Russia off Swift, eliminate their ability to transfer money to the US. Same with Cyprus and all bank havens that launder Russian money.

Reinstate all embargoes that were in effect during the Soviet era.

Terminate all trade agreements

[quote]Obama expelled many Russian diplomats. He closed the two Russian vacation homes. He enacted sanctions, and targeted them on Putin and his allies. He also cryptically stated that we would respond “at a time and place of our choosing”, which sounds great.

Trump has been more hawkish toward Russia than Obama.

Obama expelled 35 Russian Diplomats. Trump 60.

Trump approved the sale of anti-tank Javelin missile systems to Ukraine. Obama did not.

Under Obama Putin was able to invade Ukraine.

That motherfucker is wreaking havoc in south America. Bolivia and Ecuador had to shut down transmisions from the Russian channel RT.

Hi R3. I don’t think Trump is more hawkish toward Russia than was Obama.

I don’t remember all the details, but I do remember that at one point, Congress authorized some support for Ukraine, and Trump was dawdling about signing the bill. I recall that Trump was told that Congress would override his veto, if he vetoed the bill. Only then, did Trump sign the bill. So, this Ukraine support was passed in spite of Trump, not because of him.

You’ll recall that the only significant change that Trump made to the Republican platform was to remove the section that was critical of Russia.

Then, after one meeting with Putin, Trump proposed joint Russian-American military exercises. The US military quashed that, because it would only have served to pass our military’s secrets over to Russia.

After his Helsinki meeting with Putin, Trump proposed a joint US-Russian task force to counter hacking from...from Russia! This idiotic idea was quashed by our intelligence services, for the same reason as above.

Jared still hasn’t explained why he wanted to set-up a communication line through the Russian embassy.

Trump also took Putin’s word about Russian interference in our election, over our intelligence services.

There’s much more, but basically, it is the Congress, our military, and our intelligence services that are hawkish on Russia. Trump has been dragging his feet and countering their efforts when ever he can.

And it’s bizarre to blame Obama for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That is Putin’s fault, entirely. If you want to argue that it was Obama’s fault somehow, please explain what you suggest he should have done, and why Trump hasn’t done these things now.

[quote] Hopefully, we get a Democrat as President...

We already saw what would happen. Reset.

You mean, what should SHE do, OP.

[quote] Trump has been more hawkish toward Russia than Obama.

You mean allowing Russian spies into the Oval Office?

Praising Russia for everything it does and saying he doesn’t believe they interferes with US elections?

Trump already said Ukrainians were pro Russian invasion.

You’re a fucking idiot.

Bush tried a reset, too. The problem is Putin.

IGNORE is not r3’s friend. They’re a racist, pro-Kremlin, pro-Trump bot. F&F them the fuck out of here!

We should do to them all the stuff they try to do to us.

R5 The Brookings Institution: The U.S. administration’s actions on Russia.

[quote]And it’s bizarre to blame Obama for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

OK agreed. But you mean to tell me if Russia were to successfully invade a country today Trump would not be blamed by the Dems?

And let's remember too: the Russian attempt to influence the 2016 election also happened under Obama's watch. And this was after warnings in 2014 from national security officials.

Go fuck yourself R10.

As awful as Trump is, it's best to avoid a pissing contest between Trump and Obama with regards to Russia.

[quote] R12: OK agreed. But you mean to tell me if Russia were to successfully invade a country today Trump would not be blamed by the Dems?

Putin invaded Ukraine [bold] despite [/bold] Obama’s and Hillary’s and our European allies’ objections. If he were to invade somewhere else, now, it would be with Trump as a supporter. So, yes, Trump should be blamed because he’s earned it.

[quote] R12: And let's remember too: the Russian attempt to influence the 2016 election also happened under Obama's watch. And this was after warnings in 2014 from national security officials.

You’ll recall that Obama asked for Republican support for taking a hard line with Russia, and the Republican leaders in the House and Senate would not support him in making a joint statement to condemn the Russians.

But we’re off track here. How should the next President treat Russia and Putin?

I think we need a Cold War. We’re already in a Cold War, it’s just time to acknowledge it

For R10

Written by the Russian Trolls at NPR:

Anything and everything short of starting a war with them. Off the top my head: Halt all entry into the US from Russian nationals/citizens, halt adoptions from Russia, revoke all US citizenships given to children of Russian mothers who came here to shit out a baby for a US passport. Ban all political donations from Russian-linked individuals and organizations. Prevent Russian immigrants from accessing welfare. Preventing them from purchasing US property and transferring ownership of any properties a Russian national/organization purchased in the last 15yrs to the state or federal government. Hunting down and disappearing all their spies. Shutting down their electrical systems in major cities. Sabotaging their major exports. Even more aggressive efforts to stir political and social unrest up to an including releasing man-made, disease causing agents into their population. Fuck Russia, republicans, and any fence-sitting, 'let's heal and move on' pansies -- they need to pay for Trump!

Everything r17 said and more. As well, get rid of Putin and his circle of butt buddies. I don’t know what form that will take but all of them need to go. As well, destroy their communications systems.

And to our unwelcome Moscow trolls monitoring this thread, go snitch about what the evil Americans are going to do your evil overlords when Trump goes down in flames, but just remember it is they who are keeping you poor, drunk and begging for scraps. THEY put you in this position, not the rest of the world. Your own people.

Follow the money. Expose. Confiscate. Indict. Putin's power rests on his oligarchs and their collective looting of Russia.

Elect Pete. Hey, maybe he’s not exactly intimidating but I bet it would do something special to bruise Putin’s ego and his image of manly Russian manliness to have a gay punish him politically and economically.

[quote] I think we need a Cold War.

Wow. Trump managed to make being pro-war a progressive position.

Why stop at a Cold War? Why not a red hot one with actual weapons?

I think we need to invade both Russia and China.

I love these, um, optimists who are talking about "getting rid" of Putin. What power do you think the US has to do this without war or assassination?

[quote]I think we need to invade both Russia and China.

Warmongering "progressives".

Let's nuke 'em!

Total and complete shutdown of the entry of Russians to the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on.

For all the McCarthyites here: meanwhile over in Europe....

Shortly after Trump had the Russian Ambassador and a few other Russian spooks into the Oval Office, Trump took a long weekend at Mar-a-lago while the Oval Office was “upgraded”.

I read on DataLounge that they actually ripped-up and gutted the entire room, and then rebuilt it because they otherwise couldn’t be sure that the Russians hadn’t placed bugs somewhere in the room.

R26, Dubya tried a reset; Hillary tried a reset; Trump is a Russian asset, and Putin just gets emboldened. We’ve been attacked and can expect to be attacked again. It’s past time to defend ourselves.

Trumpian Response: waddaya think, we’re so good? We’ve done bad things too. Bad things.

Trump’s actually said something to the effect of the above, as if he doesn’t know he’s supposed to be on our side. As if that somehow gives Putin an excuse to attack us however he wants.

We can't even do anything in Venezuela despite the will of the people. Both political parties suck up to China and Saudi Arabia. Good luck getting anything done in Russia.

We can't even hold our own political leaders accountable for their corruption.

Instead of dropping a bomb on Moscow, maybe we could drop Trump on it? It would be a twofer.

Didn't a Russian lab with smallpox and ebola explode recently? We're probably already getting revenge on them and people don't even know it.

Exile the Trump family to Russia.

R32, I recall wondering about that, too. I think it’s unlikely, though, because in the West, at least, we don’t immunize against smallpox anymore. If it got loose in Russia, I’m sure they’d send it over to us. If it ever gets out of the lab, it will be a terribly ugly thing. It’ll be like how the American Indian population was destroyed when smallpox arrived in the Americas. I read recently that smallpox arrived in Mexico City before the Spanish did, because it spread so quickly.

I saw something on TV once about how there is a tipping point for a highly developed society, as to the percentage of the population that can be lost, before the society fails. For example, in a hunter gatherer society, most people do identical work, so it can lose a large percent of its population without falling apart. An advanced society with specialization can only afford to lose 25% to 30% of its population. Above that level, you’d risk losing all your medical knowledge, or all your blacksmith knowledge, or similar.

I think Jared and Ivanka, in particular, might know too much to be allowed to leave the country. Trump himself should know too much, but he might have learned nothing at all while President, so it’s hard to tell. In any event, I think they need to all be put in a Supermax prison. For their own safety, and to keep them from having access to anyone with whom they might pass classified info, or whom they might use to stir shit up.

Poison their vodka supply.

Deport all of the Russian immigrants here back to Russia.

Dismantle Russia from its oil resource. Develop Saudi influence in their oil expertise. Russia had problems with Chechnya. what happened with that?? Russia will feel the wrath of the American Eagle soon enough. The Boomers are dying off. They have nothing to lose.

Polonium tea, and some "Almond" biscuits from Fortnum's.

After the 2020 election, the Dem should make Trump the Ambassador to Russia. Then we could keep giving him little projects that are not to ever amount to anything, but just to keep him busy.

Put Putin in prison. Put all the disgusting, thieving olagarks in prison.

Bomb that shithole country. I want to see them suffer.

War is progressive.

Peace is reactionary.

We cannot allow these fucking foreigners to meddle in our elections any longer.

Nuke them.

War works. War got England out of the colonies. War ended slavery. War ended Nazism. And war will make America great again because war made America in the first place.

WE WANT A WAR!!

WE WANT A WAR!!

WE WANT A WAR!!

WE WANT A WAR!!

WE WANT A WAR!!

Ivanka can shill vodka in another country for all I care....she is a deplorable (with good tits).

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Lovely people.

sad!

One important thing is to not corner them with no options. We don’t want to make war the best option for them. I think Trump is doing that with Iran. Making it so hard for them, that the best option is war. War is never, realistically, a good option.

We can make it hard for Russian oligarchs, and embargo their oil, and so forth, without making them completely hopeless.

Flood them with meth, opioids and cheap fenatyl patches. Let nature take its course.

Cut a deal with the cartels to flood Russia with drugs.