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Hey, good morning, playbookers, and Raguminovalin. It's Wednesday.

Today's big question, when it comes to Ukraine, what's the right move?

It's your Politico Playbook Daily Briefing.

The Russian sanctions announced by President Joe Biden yesterday made it clear.

The White House is still grappling with the very same question the president mused about publicly in his news conference back on January 19th.

What is the appropriate Western response to something significantly short of a significant invasion?

As Playbooks Ryan Lizza put it, Tuesday sanctions were more of an amused bush than the full

menu that has been hinted at for weeks, and reactions as usual varied.

Markets were underwhelmed, says Bloomberg's Justin Sink in his story.

Biden's first salvo of Russian sanctions lands with a thud, not a roar.

Quote, the sanctions hardly amounted to the precedent-shattering, economy-crippling measures.

The US and its partners long telegraphed if Russian troops ruled across the border.

Republicans were unhappy.

Senator Ben Sasse, quote, too little too late, which more or less captures the view of most

GOP foreign policy talkers, or at least

the ones who haven't defected to the Tucker Carlsonian view, that Ukraine doesn't matter,

and Putin isn't so bad.

Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley in a tweet said, quote, President Biden promised a swift

and severe response.

He did not deliver.

Ukraine is a test of Western resolve.

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