Can? Anything that a mighty military, economic, and political power allows.
Should? Maybe walk their talk? Too many times the US is criticizing countries like China for doing something only to turn around and do the very same thing but sprinkled with a "feel-good" explanation.
To be blunt, we need to find some endgame that allows the Russians to feel like they won something.
Yes, there has been tragic carnage. You can call me Neville Chamberlain, and insist I'm rewarding a bully for being a bully. But this conflict is reaping the proceeds of 30 years of whittling down the Russian sphere of influence and global respect. Even Putin's rise fits well into that narrative-- if Russia had been pulled closer to Europe after 1991, had a less catastrophic switch to private enterprise, had an economic rebirth more like, say, Estonia, would his brand of politics have gotten any traction in the first place? We could see this coming and did nothing to prevent it.
If the war is dragged out until it delivers, say, "a return to 1991 borders and some show trials at the Hague", there's no way that the Russian people don't spend decades in a full scale decoupling and brooding at the West. Even if Putin disappears, there are plenty of others who can stoke that fire. Worst case, you get a DPRK-style hermit state that spans 14 time zones with the industrial capacity and natural resources to back up its resentment.
Conversely, making a quick deal where they walk away as "winners"-- if you don't want to give them Donetsk, how about Cyprus-- lets us pivot towards breaking down the "Russia vs the West" narrative. Try to restructure some international organizations to ensure Russia feels like a respected participant instead of a pariah. Give them opportunities to use their military capability for peacemaking and retaining regional order-- let them have a sphere of influence they crave, but acknowledge it has costs. Develop some trade and joint-venture plans that aren't blatant plundering of a defeated foe. It took decades for many of the former Soviet-bloc states to fit into the modern European order, so we should start the countdown for Russia as soon as possible.
I was trying to think of someplace absurd-- had "Baltimore" in there in an earlier draft, but I know there's a lot of business ties with Russian firms and Cyprus already.
Your unrelated question is posed as a challenge to what I said, without actually challenging anything I said. Worse, it suggests banning Kaspersky from the Google Play Store is "a suggestion for the situation", whatever that might mean.
Your points, while well and true, are not really relevant in the current thread.
The US isn't "criticizing countries ... for doing something only to turn around and do the very same thing but sprinkled with a "feel-good" explanation." in terms of the situation in Ukraine. Either show they are, or provide a suggestion to the thing we're actually talking about.
Should? Maybe walk their talk? Too many times the US is criticizing countries like China for doing something only to turn around and do the very same thing but sprinkled with a "feel-good" explanation.
This [0] will never get old.
[0] https://www.brokenfrontier.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/ho...