Former National Security Adviser John Bolton called on the U.S. and European countries to ban Russians citizens following President Vladimir Putin's attack on Ukraine.
"Such a visa ban is clear, sweeping, immediate and readily enforceable," Bolton wrote in a column published Monday in The Daily Telegraph. "This would be far more shocking to Russians than sanctions against a small number of high-ranking targets.
"We could go further and expel Russians already in Western countries."
Bolton wrote that brave Ukrainians fighting against Russian troops deserve assistance, and their allies "immediately need new ideas that can change the direction of events and impact Putin and Russia" — such as a visa ban on Russians.
"Some will say this is too harsh and disruptive. Really? Ask Ukraine what harsh and disruptive mean," Bolton wrote. "The West has failed to deter Russia's attack, and its post-invasion sanctions have so far been pinpricks, hardly even touching Russia's critical energy sector.
"If there are better ideas than a visa ban, let's get them out in public. Otherwise, we will just be sitting back watching the casualty lists get longer."
Bolton, who served as U.N. ambassador in 2005-06, slammed President Joe Biden for failing to grasp the meaning of deterrence before Putin unleashed his invasion.
"Possibly, [Biden] simply doesn't understand what deterrence is, and that it almost always includes credible threats of future punishment to affect an adversary's current actions," Bolton wrote.
"It may be that Biden was never confident Putin could be deterred, certainly not by threats alone. In that case, unless Biden was prepared to accept the inevitable devastation that an invasion of Ukraine would cause, he should have spared no effort to develop additional steps to prevent it. He did not, despite widespread, urgent advice that the sanctions he threatened were insufficient, and that real-time costs had to be imposed on Putin before he initiated military action."
Bolton said it became obvious why the effort to dissuade Putin failed during Biden's press conference on Thursday, when reporters questioned the president about the sanctions.
"Biden admitted that he never believed his threats to impose economic sanctions against Russia, and other steps the West might take if the Kremlin 'further invaded' Ukraine, would deter Putin, Bolton wrote. "The transcript is admittedly confused, as are so many of Biden's unscripted remarks, but the meaning is clear."
One reporter asked Biden, what will stop Putin, considering sanctions to that point hadn't?
"No one expected the sanctions to prevent anything from happening," Biden said.
Bolton said the president's words shocked many people.
"That was news to Washington and beyond, where people believed their deliberations and preparations were intended to do precisely that," Bolton wrote.
"The rubble in Biden's mind is what it is. We should not await improvement. Instead, we immediately need new ideas that can change the direction of events and impact Putin and Russia."
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