Reuters quotes Eurasia Center Director John Herbst on the need for more aggressive EU and US action against Russia:
John Herbst, U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2003-2006 and now director of the Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council, said the Obama administration must push the Europeans to do more and if necessary move out even further ahead of its EU allies despite the risk of causing friction.
“By any comprehensive analysis Russia is much more dependent on the West economically than the West is on Russia,” he said.
“There will certainly be some pain involved in Europe and the United States if we take very serious sanctions against Russia,” Herbst told reporters on a conference call. “But the question to ask those short-sighted businessmen who worry about their profits: What’s the cost of a conflagration in eastern Ukraine which spirals out of control?”