Second, if Russia is really to become a pariah (as Biden promised) as a consequence of its brazen violations of the laws warfare, this sort of diplomatic exclusion seems like one of the easiest steps we could possibly take in that direction.

We have already isolated Russian banks with SWIFT, sanctions against Russia’s Central Bank, and the decision by the Visa and Mastercard payment systems to end services in Russia. As Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this morning, we are now likely to provide planes to Ukraine (indirectly, through Poland) and to impose a multilateral ban on imports of oil from Russia.

In other words, we have already taken the more difficult and extreme (and also fully justified) measures — so why not this easy and obvious one? Why keep pretending we care about Russia’s voice in world affairs, when all its involvement can do is make matters worse? Is Biden really so desperate for a bad deal with Iran that he is willing to play nice with Putin in this regard?