in terms of may be a ban on microchips and things like that going to russia, but also the possibility of not starting, suspending the north stream gas pipeline, which is important for russia, and also expelling russia from the swift international banking messaging system, so there are tools at the west s disposal which would be extremely damaging for putin personally and his entourage as well as for the russian state. as for the russian state. some are callin: as for the russian state. some are calling this as for the russian state. some are calling this the as for the russian state. some are calling this the greatest as for the russian state. some are calling this the greatest political i calling this the greatest political crisis since the end of the cold war. do you agree with that assessment? war. do you agree with that assessment? ~ ~ ., assessment? well, i think we have had a number assessment? well, i think we have had a number of assessment? well, i think we have ha
of diplomacy open at the same time as preparing for the worst and making clear that there will be very severe consequences for russia if they do engage in the military aggression against ukraine. indeed president biden has reiterated that today and said there will be severe sanctions i mean that they are most likely to be economic, but we also know that president putin has proved impervious to economic sanctions in the past. will that have any impact? well, i think they can because the sort of scale of the sanctions being discussed now are much greater than russia has suffered in recent years, not only, sort of, economic sanctions in terms of may be a ban on microchips and things like that going to russia, but also the possibility of not starting, suspending the nordstream gas pipeline, which is important for russia, and also expelling russia from the swift international banking
than russia has suffered in recent years and in terms of maybe a ban on microchips and things like that going to russia also the possibility of not starting or suspending the north stream gas pipeline which is important for russia and also expelling russia from the swift international banking messaging system, there are tools at the west s disposal which would be extremely damaging for putin personally and his entourage as well as for the russian state. as for the russian state. some are callin: as for the russian state. some are calling this as for the russian state. some are calling this the as for the russian state. some are calling this the greatest as for the russian state. some are calling this the greatest political i calling this the greatest political crisis since the end of the cold war. do you agree with that assessment? war. do you agree with that assessment? ~ ,, ., assessment? well, i think we have had a number assessment? well, i think we have had a number of