Shock and Awe in the Financial Realm
Never has a major world economy been handcuffed by the kinds of financial restrictions that have been imposed on Russia, said Patricia Cohen and Jeanna Smialek in The New York Times. Just days after Ukraine was invaded, its Western allies "froze hundreds of billions of dollars of Russian assets held in their own financial institutions; removed Russian banks from the SWIFT messaging system; and made foreign investment in the country...