And one that doesn't involve punishing everyday Russians.

Ready? Open the borders to Russia.

"What?!" "How come?" "That's ridiculous!"

Hear me out.

What do all countries with threatening militaries have in common? Big populations. That's because defense spending is mostly what economists call "nonrival"; meaning, you roughly need the same defense arsenal to protect 30 million people as you do to protect 200 million. So big populations means more ease to finance the military; hence, big populations finance big, threatening militaries, as well as lots of soldiers. Especially productive populations.

Except Russia right now is facing a demographic challenge: it ain't really growing no more. It's sort of relying on immigration from the south as well as bringing some ethnic Russians back to the motherland, some annexations, just to keep its population stable. So guess what would weaken it further? Losing a third of its current population. Massive blow to Defense. And how do you deplete Russia from so many of its people? By opening Western borders to those people.

And I'm not just talking US borders, but also Canada's, Australia's, even Latin America's. It would be a concerted effort from these countries to vacuum a lot of people from Russia, especially those least fond of it. I expect at least a third of the population would be gone in about a decade. Tax revenue for defense would fall, while the dependency ratio would rise, making matters worse.

The Russians play to their strength, which is being a much-needed supplier of energy; likewise, the New World ought to play to its strength, which is to suck Europe's (and more recently other countries') most ambitious, let them all mingle out here, do business, and they'll do cool things.