President Joe Biden and Russian bad boy Vladimir Putin have now had their two-hour virtual parley about the Ukraine crisis. Is there any clear sense on how this will all end? No.
The readout from the White House looked thinner than Christmas tissue paper, but from what can be gleaned, the U.S. side put nothing more on the table than what the president and secretary of state have been saying for days: more sanctions.
The threat of sanctions is meant to deter a full-blown Russian invasion of Ukraine. But history shows that sanctions are no more of a deterrent to Putin than a speed bump to a monster truck. Just ask the good folks of occupied Crimea. Or occupied Georgia.
