Sanctions should give the Russians a way out

The Western press cheers whenever it is announced that another Russian yacht has been seized. But the cheering was premature: The sanctions being implemented were likely to backfire because they didn’t give the Russians a chance to switch sides. America and Europe should offer a better outlet for both elite and ordinary Russians.

The barriers that the West is erecting is an ironic reversal of history. The Soviet Union built the Berlin Wall to keep the citizens of the Eastern bloc in. Today, the West is building a wall around Russia. This has three important implications.