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Comment by boringg | Hacker News Reader

As a westerner I have some serious unease about this economic warfare that has really just kicked off. This is only going to create a significantly worse and more destabilized situation. I don't think this is going to cow Putin into behaving, more like send him into a rage. Overthrowing a regime through macroeconomic warfare doesn't sit well with me.

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You should have "serious unease" about Russia invading a neighboring country and threatening other Western nations militarily. What would you suggest as an alternative to this "economic warfare" as you call it? What would "cow Putin into behaving"?

I sympathize but this is still better than direct war. The alternative is what -- allow Putin to run roughshod over Ukraine and expand his capacity to imperil our security?

Lots of options available to us. We just hit the nuclear economic warfare button - they are going to hit back hard and in many ways. Expect, at the very least, a lot of hacking security disruptions. Russia won't hold back anymore if we squeeze them like this. A trapped animal is the most dangerous one.

>Lots of options available to us

Can you enumerate some of them?

Literally everything is possible - do you seriously want me to enumerate all the different possibilities to attack and/or pressure Russian interests by the US?

Russia is the new sick man of Europe, ironically enough given the old Russian empire used the term originally to describe the aging Ottoman empire. They seem to be the only ones that can't see it.

They don't have anything that anyone particularly wants anymore. Germany can switch to LNG. USA is net energy positive these days (although the shale might only last another 10-15 years). And finally nukes just aren't worth that much with MAD.

> Lots of options available to us.

And yet you present none.

A destabilized situation is precisely what leads to Putin being overthrown. That's kind of the point.

Destabilizing situations has historically worked out terribly for the US. While that might seem like the best route forward - it bears considerable risks for the world.

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