According to the Financial Times, the EU is preparing to freeze the personal assets of both Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The EU is preparing to freeze the assets of Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov under the sanctions package being pushed through on Friday, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Foreign ministers are planning to approve the sanctions package this afternoon, along with a number of measures against Russian banks and industry, the people said.
Officially Putin does not have much in the way of assets. Will these sanctions have any bite? Or are they just for show?
Thus far, economic pressures seem rather ineffective against Putin.
Yes, they have clearly anticipated sanctions and proceeded anyway. Counter sanctions will be painful. For example, BA has been banned from overflight in response to Aeroflot sanctions. Gas flows are surging through Ukraine today as new long-term contracts have been signed by European buyers. There will be plenty of media wailing but it appears that the most important business, commodities, will continue as usual.
When talking about the relative pain felt by civilians it appears to me that the Russian state and public are better positioned to deal with economic pain as they are used to hardship, starting from a far lower level of prosperity, have a have significant reserves set aside for this event, are energy self-sufficient, and are the closest country to being an autarky. Thoughts on that?
Here's a bit of irony...well, more correctly stainless-steely...the Mat Rodina statue in Kyiv: https://www.tutorialathome.in/history/rodina-mat-kiev-ukraine-leading-landmarks
Not nearly as impressive as the Mat Rodina statue in Volgograd, the world's largest:
https://lidenz.ru/the-motherland-calls/
Here is a fantastic piece by Dmitri Orlov on the 'peculiarities of the Russian character' that may offer some insight on the impact of sanctions: https://cluborlov.wordpress.com/2015/01/13/peculiarities-of-russian-national-character-2/
See especially the conclusions.
Yes, they have clearly anticipated sanctions and proceeded anyway. Counter sanctions will be painful. For example, BA has been banned from overflight in response to Aeroflot sanctions. Gas flows are surging through Ukraine today as new long-term contracts have been signed by European buyers. There will be plenty of media wailing but it appears that the most important business, commodities, will continue as usual.
When talking about the relative pain felt by civilians it appears to me that the Russian state and public are better positioned to deal with economic pain as they are used to hardship, starting from a far lower level of prosperity, have a have significant reserves set aside for this event, are energy self-sufficient, and are the closest country to being an autarky. Thoughts on that?