He has announced that he will meet with

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European leaders today, for the approval of the harsh sanctions mentioned above. That the war had been brewing for so long indicates that Biden had planned how to react. Ukraine is a NATO partner, but not a member of the organization . This is, in fact, one of the keys to the conflict: the Kremlin does not welcome a hypothetical entry of Ukraine into NATO, considering it a threat to its country. The US does not have direct defense commitments with Ukraine, as it does with NATO members, therefore, it is foreseeable that the magnitude of the US response will be limited to economic sanctions. A military intervention is unlikely (and not at all desirable, since such an escalation of the conflict could greatly destabilize the world order).

A priori, sanctions against Russia are the only tool that Western powers put on the table to make Putin back down. “President Putin has started a premeditated war that will cause catastrophic loss of life and human suffering,” Joe Biden has publicly declared (Photo: White House) The heart of the Russian economy: raw materials Russia—the eleventh largest economy Phone Number Data in the world— is one of the main producers of raw materials. Still under the shadow of the pandemic, the West moves in a context marked by irregularities in production chains (which have caused shortages of certain products) to which extreme weather episodes are added. A convergence of factors that has caused the price of most raw materials to skyrocket. When talking about raw materials we are not only referring to gas. Russia is the world's second largest producer of aluminum , only behind China.



Currently, the price of aluminum is at historic highs, which has the direct consequence of increasing the cost of a wide range of consumer goods. Hypothetical sanctions on this sector would raise prices even more, which would also harm the West. Even if Western sanctions bypassed strategic sectors, any measure by Moscow to limit the supply of raw materials would also cause an explosion in prices. That is the dilemma that Europe faces right now. They know that raw materials are Putin's main source of income, but they fear damaging their own economies.