Russia and her citizens are now one trillion dollars poorer, or – at least, those assets are unavailable to them until Russia pulls out of Ukraine altogether and restores everything to its rightful place. When the United States takes actions like this, one expects Canada, the U.K., Japan, Germany, France, India, and, hopefully – China, along with other nations to follow. Russia, a country with an economy the size of Italy, now has far less… economy?

Given that no reputable foreign country will take “rubles” as payment for anything (and that was true before the war), the sanctions have effectively prevented Russians from buying anything abroad.

Russia’s only real asset is its oil. Biden just put an international embargo on Russian oil, which will drive gas prices up further but isolate Russia that much more. In order to offset some of the pain at the pump, Biden opened up more of the U.S. strategic petroleum reserves. In other words, Biden is making it so painful for Russia to stay in Ukraine that the overall balance sheet regarding the rationale for taking Ukraine might be self-defeating. Russia might end up poorer, even if it gains a country.

Biden: We’ve now sanctioned Russian banks that together hold one trillion. We’ve cut off Russia’s largest bank, a bank that holds more than one-third of Russia’s banking assets. Today, we’re also blocking four more banks. That means every asset they have in the US will be frozen.

The net reacted instantaneously:

Biden: We’ve now sanctioned Russian banks that together hold one trillion. We’ve cut off Russia’s largest bank, a bank that holds more than one third of Russia’s banking assets. Today, we’re also blocking four more banks. That means every asset they have in the US will be frozen pic.twitter.com/Ailn4TBzxo

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 24, 2022

Biden: “Every asset [Russia] has in America will be frozen.”

— S.E. Cupp (@secupp) February 24, 2022

All Russian Assets in America have been Frozen

Hello!✌️

— Badd Company (@BaddCompani) February 24, 2022

Biden, announcing sanctions on Russian assets and banks: every asset they have in the U.S. will be frozen.

— Joy-Ann (Pro-Democracy) Reid 😷 (@JoyAnnReid) February 24, 2022

It is rather extraordinary. Regular Russian citizens cannot access money outside the country. It is going to make life in Russia far more painful and, these are, occasionally, the type of things that bring down regimes. When the people feel so much pain because of a corrupt leader…

****

[email protected] and with Nicole Hickman