In the attack on Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has taken into account tough sanctions from the West. This could be a big miscalculation.

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The United States, European Union, Britain and several other Western and Asian countries have now implemented various sanctions against Russia. Some critics say this is not enough, and that Putin is prepared to be isolated for a while.

We still believe that sanctions weapons are the best we have today. But tougher action is needed.

By targeting sanctions against Russian banks, state-owned companies and wealthy Russians with close ties to Vladimir Putin and his circle of so-called oligarchs, the plan is to cripple key parts of Russia’s economy.

If Russia were also excluded from the Swift payment system, which is used to transfer money between banks internationally, this would in practice stop all trade with Russia.

UK and EU push, but both The United States and Germany refusedbecause people worry that Russia and China could then develop competing systems.

This is an obvious dilemma. Another is that sanctions against oil and gas producing giants like Russia will also mean that energy prices go up. Bills that do not go to the Kremlin, but to consumers in Europe and the United States.

At the same time, the condemnation of the majority of the free nations of the world is emphatic: Regimes that carry out aggression against peaceful neighbors must face the consequences.

They must not only be held responsible for the bottomless, human and material traps, which they inflict on others. Under international law, wars of aggression can also initiate international tribunals and trigger personal criminal liability.

In International military court in Nuremberg in 1945-46, the German National Socialists were indicted on four main charges, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.

But also this: Crime against peacewhich in international law is a term for starting or waging war against territorial integrity, political independence, or the sovereignty of other countries.

As President Putin is doing now.

Although Russia does not recognize the International Criminal Court in The Hague, it is unlikely that Putin and the kleptocrats around him did not include this risk in their war calculations. That in itself shows how immoral the new tsar was in the Kremlin.

Equally telling are the ideological and political reasons for waging war against Ukraine. During a parody of a press conference on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov emphasized that an invasion of Europe’s largest country was necessary to “demilitarize” and “liberate Ukraine from the Nazis” so that “Ukraines are free to choose their own destiny.”

It would be bad if a man as seemingly talented as the Russian Foreign Minister made such a spray out of fear of Putin, knowing what happened to his international integrity.

But it was even worse if he really thought that way.

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