RUSSIA UNHINGED — THE MISINFORMATION EMPERORS HAVE NO CLOTHES Has someone poisoned the water? Did Russian diplomats take a Wolf Warrior crash course over the winter? Maybe bizarre Covid protocols are rewiring Russian brains. None of those thoughts are as unhinged as the Russian official ranting over the past 36 hours. Russia's ambassador to the U.N., Vasily Nebenzya, speaking at the General Assembly, said his country is simply trying to "de-militarize and de-genocide Ukraine." By bombing the crap out of even a major Holocaust Memorial, apparently. That's right, the same army that works "exclusively with high-precision weapons" per Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu managed to somehow kill five people and damage the Babyn Yar memorial in Kyiv, while targeting a nearby radio tower. Russia is big on Nazis. Did you know that Japan and Canada, like Ukraine, are run by Nazis? The Russian embassies in each country helpfully reminded us Tuesday: — "Japan has come to support a Nazi regime for the second time in less than a hundred years. Previously it was the Hitler regime, and this time it is supporting the Ukrainian regime," Russian Embassy in Japan. — Same from the Canadian embassy, with the addition of officials in Ottawa being accused of "Goebbels-style propaganda." Meanwhile, Memorial, Russia's longest-standing human rights organization has been shut down by the country's highest court. STATE OF THE AMERICAN UNION President Joe Biden is, thankfully, not unhinged — but he is an optimist, calling the State of the Union "strong" in his first official SOTU address Tuesday night, while offering a security blanket . That's not really a response you'll hear from many people in a focus group on the topics, but let's humor the White House for a second. Biden started strongly on Ukraine, and garnered the second legislative standing ovation this week for a Ukraine ambassador (after Germany). He also had some genuinely touching health care points to make on fighting cancer and the cost of drugs. Beyond that, the drama was leavened with … standard Democratic wish lists that had Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) repeatedly shaking her head in silent opposition, but prompted Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) to hug Biden post-speech. Top quotes At war (but not at war!): "Putin sought to shake the foundations of the free world … but he badly miscalculated." "Putin is now isolated from the world more than he has ever been. … We're making his $650 billion war fund worthless." "To the oligarchs … I say, no more." On the home front: "Capitalism without competition is exploitation." THE CASE AGAINST VLADIMIR PUTIN POLITICO's European team compiled the evidence against Putin that may be used against him in international courts. Canada referred Russia to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity: Mélanie Joly , minister of Foreign Affairs, said "we are working with other ICC member states" on a dossier,"including war crimes and crimes against humanity." ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan has announced an inquiry. Neither Russia nor the U.S. are members of the Court. Ukraine filed a petition to the International Court of Justice , the main judicial organ of the United Nations. The petition is filed under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, with Ukraine seeking a provisional ruling requiring Russia to halt military activity, which it claims to be taking because of alleged (without basis) genocide in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine. Should Russia be listed as a state sponsor of terrorism? That would be the ultimate sanction , argues State Department counter-terrorism official Jason M. Blazakis, now director of the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of Internal Studies. Blazakis claims that this designation would not only cripple Russia's economy but, more important, crush Putin's ego. Opinion — Putin Loses No Matter How This Plays Out, But We Might Too, argues Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer. ECONOMIC STATE OF PLAY MORE SANCTIONS ON THE WAY That's the message from Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and the U.K. Chancellor Rishi Sunak, out of a G-7 finance ministers meeting Tuesday. Freeland said: "If you make war on the rules-based international order, we're going to cut you out of the global economy." Biden in his State of the Union speech said: "We will find and seize their luxury yachts, their jets … and tonight we close all U.S. airspace to Russian planes. You have no idea what's coming." What the U.S. learned from the last time it sanctioned Russia: Go for the jugular. Report Kate Davidson and Victoria Guida. RUSSIA CHOKING Latvia's ambassador to the U.S., Maris Selga, said Tuesday that Belarus must face identical sanctions to Russia: "They are acting as one." The EU imposed further sanctions against Belarus this morning local time. Global financial institutions: There's no official talk of freezing Russia's IMF "special drawing rights" (worth around $7 billion), but there is coordinated action to release more funds to Ukraine at both IMF and World Bank. "An additional $2.2 billion is available between now and the end of June" from the IMF, while the World Bank Group is "preparing a $3 billion package of support," including $350 million submitted for approval to the board this week. The Russian stock market is closed for a third consecutive day, having lost 40 percent of its value in early Monday trading. Economic choke-hold: Around half the world's shipping capacity has cut Russia off. Apple, the world's most valuable company, is stopping sales in Russia, joining dozens of huge companies that have withdrawn, including in the country's key oil and gas sectors. The world's largest sovereign wealth fund, Norway's, is pulling out by March 15. Boeing went as far as to "suspend parts, maintenance and technical support services for Russian airlines." Here's a full list of the major companies pulling out. New data from Morning Consult shows 3 in 4 Americans support companies cutting business ties with Russia. The big outstanding question: Will China rescue Russia? The central banks of the two countries maintain a currency swap line. Nord Stream 2 AG, the company behind the eponymous natural gas pipeline project, has filed for bankruptcy, Silvia Thalmann-Gut, economics director of the Swiss canton of Zug, said Tuesday. The company laid off all 106 of its direct employees. Oligarchs find their political voice: Oleg Tinkov joins the list of those calling for peace. BALTICS TO WORLD — GOOD FIRST STEPS, WE NEED TO DO MORE Ambassadors to the U.S. from the three Baltic countries left their audience at a Center for European Policy Analysis event in no doubt about their support for even stronger action against Russia — their years of warnings sadly vindicated over the past week. All three supported Sweden and Finland joining NATO. Estonia's Ambassador Kristjan Prikk said "we have to be ready for long-term confrontation." He expects there will be holes in recently announced sanctions, and spoke of the need to increase NATO defense posture on the alliance's eastern flank — "we have to seriously and very rapidly raise the costs of the aggression" — and urged his EU colleagues to approve Ukraine as a candidate for membership. For now, an airlift into Ukraine is not necessary: "The land bridge seems most reliable," he believes. Ambassador Māris Selga of Latvia echoed the line about problems on NATO's eastern borders, and warned against appeasement of a bully: "We have to move from deterrence by punishment, to deterrence by denial." Adding, "we can't go to the ice rink for figure skating, when they (Russia) are at the rink for ice hockey." Audra Plepytė , Lithuania's ambassador, said she "still remembers 30 years ago when they (Moscow) were attacking our TV towers," highlighting that she still sees Lithuania in danger from Putin's aggression. The Suwalki Gap (the border area between Lithuania and Poland that connects Russia's Kaliningrad enclave to friendly Belarus) "is becoming more vulnerable and deserves more attention," she said. The "Russians are very serious with their demands," she said, adding, "I doubt they will be giving up soon. We have to prepare for the worst." UKRAINE HUMANITARIAN SITUATION The United Nations has launched coordinated emergency appeals for $1.7 billion to deliver support within Ukraine and to neighboring countries to help the more than 677,000 people the UNHCR says have fled Ukraine in recent days — marking the most intense human flight within Europe's borders since the Balkan wars of the 1990s. REALITY CHECK — UKRAINE EU MEMBERSHIP: It sounds so enticing, doesn't it? The European Parliament just voted to make Ukraine a candidate country. So can't the EU now use political tectonic plates shifting to fast-track Ukraine into membership? Can it happen this week? Try 2025: at best. More likely: 2030, if Ukraine can kick Putin out. There is a surge of support in fast-tracking Ukraine's membership, but even a role model country like Estonia took nine years to clear all of the EU's hurdles. Rich and mostly corruption-free Sweden took four years. "There is no set timetable in negotiations. ... This is a very complex process," warned European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas. "EU membership is something completely different and a much longer process" than making a country a candidate and opening up the EU's single market to them, Belgian PM Alexander De Croo said at a news conference. REALITY CHECK — PUTIN AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS: 'Yes, he would' use them, says the leading Russia expert in Washington, Fiona Hill, in an interview with POLITICO's Maura Reynolds. We are already, she said, in the middle of a third World War, whether we've fully grasped it or not — repeating old patterns we told ourselves we had left behind.
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