Sanctions relief will continue. I think the diesel deal and the move regarding the Lindsey Graham Act are not the end of it. Unfortunately. It’s unfortunate because we all had great respect for Lindsey. He devoted his life to America. We had an excellent relationship with him. And shortly before the tragedy, Lindsey was in Ukraine. He always supported us very strongly and pushed for as much assistance to Ukraine as possible. It’s difficult without him, I’ll be honest. I want to thank both Democrats and Republicans who supported his bill. That was a major victory: this truly bipartisan support. And now, the decision to undo all of this, to block all of it, seems wrong to me. And it definitely helps only the Russians. It only fuels their satisfaction and their desire to keep killing people. This certainly does not stop the war. From answers to journalists’ questions. (1/3)

Sanctions took down a conflict gold trader, but corporate and trade records reveal how his network continues to prosper. Read this weekend's Big Take here: 📷: Alexis Huguet/AFP/Getty Images

The sanctions on Iran have lasted decades. Iran developed domestic production capacity it would never have built if it could have simply imported. The sanctions on Russia accelerated the development of Russian alternatives to Western financial infrastructure. The sanctions on North Korea isolated its economy for generations. They did not prevent the country from developing its own nuclear deterrent. The sanctions on Cuba failed to produce regime change. Cuba nevertheless built one of the most extensive public healthcare systems in the world, alongside a domestic pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector. There is a pattern here that Washington seems constitutionally incapable of learning: Economic pressure forces adaptation. Adaptation builds capacity. Capacity reduces dependence. Reduced dependence undermines the next round of pressure. Every sanction regime that fails to produce submission produces, instead, a more self-sufficient adversary with less exposure to the next sanction. The weaponization of the dollar is the most powerful sanction tool available. It is also accelerating, faster than any other single factor, the construction of alternatives to the dollar. The weapon is sharpening the shield.