Is China in a Bind?

I tend to agree with you that the sanctions are underwhelming, and perhaps saving the big guns for what they anticipate to be the next steps. But as you say, it sometimes works better as a peremptive measure, rather than retrospectively. The germans have dropped their strategic ambiguity on the viability of the gas pipe line that crosses the baltics. They doldn'tno time to do that. So the fact is, energy exports to russia, for the moment, are largely untouched. And that would be what would begin to hurt moscow. I thought it was absolutely fascinating, also, what you were saying about moscow being the major beneficiary of adeter