Americans are complaining about gas prices, but what they don’t realize is that our increase in gas prices is related to the U.S. promoting economic sanctions to prevent Russia from continuing an invasion of Ukraine (according to David Bearce, a speaker on the panel held by the University of Colorado at Boulder’s International Affairs Program).
The panel was quickly put together on Monday, February 28th, as a part of the university’s Global Speaker Series held via Zoom.
There were three panelists alongside Bearce, in various departments at the university including Political Science, Geography, and History.
Panelists Erin Hutchinson, John O’Loughlin, and Sarah Sokhey helped gather information to give the audience some understanding of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
Panelist and Political Science professor David Bearce discussed the ongoing efforts the U.S. is taking, breaking down counter-insurgency and economic foreign policy.
What are Economic Sanctions?
Bearce describes economic sanctions as “The deliberate termination of pre-existing economic relationships.” In other words, it’s stopping existing trade imports and exports.
Bearce describes this by stating a couple of different actors. Actor one is the set of sanctioners; in this case, sanctions are largely western dominated by Europe and the U.S. The second factor is the sanctioned country; in this case, Russia, which sactioners want to separate into the sanctioned country’s state, President Putin and his oligarchs, and the sanctioned country’s society, or the Russian people.
Sanctions can be effective in one of two ways. The first is what Bearce describes as the old model, “Where we apply punishment that affects the economy broadly” which means they’re directed at the Russian people.
The hope using this model is that the Russian people would begin to feel economic pain, and decide to rise up and remove the government that is enacting these policies that are causing this pain.
Since the old model seemed unfair and punished society for what the state was doing, the new model came, which targets the elite and leaves society alone, says Bearce. He continues to break down the sanction regime working against Russia.
So, Whats HAPPENING now?
Currently, there are targeted sanctions against Russian elites and Putin’s oligarchy, restrictions on what the Russian Central Bank can do, and the recent exclusion of certain Russian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications otherwise known as SWIFT.
Audience member and International Affairs major, Rolla Muzabibu, says, “Overall the panelists did a good job of explaining the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.” She says the third speaker, Sarah Sokhey, “Did a good job of demonstrating the public opinions of both countries.”
She also agrees with Bearce’s statement regarding the use of both sanction models to contain Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ultimate reason for our rise in gas prices.
To those upset about gas prices, Bearce responds, “Sanctions are not going to hurt Russians unless they are hurting at home.”
The question is what can we do as American citizens and he says, “We’ll pay higher gas prices. We’ll do it with a smile on our face.”
