American rhetoric against Russia has been sharper. But in private US officials acknowledge they have no military option. They speak mostly of seeking ways of ensuring “de-escalation” and finding an “off-ramp” for Russia—principally the idea of sending UN or OSCE monitors to eastern Ukraine to report on the treatment of Russian-speakers. If Russia does not listen, they said, then the West would have to play a long game of political, economic and moral isolation. Russia, said one official, was acting in a 19th-century manner but in the 21st century the Russian economy was vulnerable to external pressure. “The Russians have badly miscalculated,” said one US official, more out of hope than conviction.
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