U.S. exports to Russia amount to only a few billions dollars a year (less than $6 billion in 2018), but the absence of these U.S. products — industrial machinery, aircraft, vehicles, medical instruments, and agricultural goods — would be felt keenly in Russian markets. Beyond physical goods, Russian firms should be denied access to U.S.-based providers of financial services and professional services such as engineering, architecture, and business consulting. The Russians love their online shenanigans, so we should cut them off from Facebook, Twitter, Google, and, especially, from the cloud services provided by Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Though many of these firms already have a strained relationship with the Kremlin, their services would still be missed in Russia.

But before any of that, we should get our own thinking straight: There is no Ukraine crisis. There is a Russia crisis, and more specifically a Putin crisis. The first rule of civilized international relations is that a country does not seize another country’s territory by force. Putin has violated that rule and intends to violate it further still. There is some quiet wishful thinking in Washington which holds that we can just let him have Ukraine and then count on NATO to provide a firewall from there, because he would not dare attack a NATO member. This is mistaken. Putin will dare what he dares, because there is no retirement plan for men such as him. And he won’t stop at Ukraine unless we stop him there.