Combined with the sanctions announced Thursday, Mr. Biden said, these measures “will so weaken” Russia that it will give Mr. Putin “some difficult decisions.”Mr. Putin has been pushing for more than a decade for Western recognition “of a Russian sphere of influence in the post-Soviet states,” and he may not stop unless he is forced to do so, Ms. Stent said in an online Council on Foreign Affairs conference on Wednesday.In anticipation of the new sanctions, bank stocks fell faster than the markets overall. Shares of European banks with the biggest Russian operations plunged: Raiffeisen of Austria fell 23 percent, while UniCredit of Italy fell 13.5 percent and Société Général …
