The US and its western allies unveiled the most punitive penalties to date against Russia, the latest in a barrage of sanctions rolled out in response to the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The measures announced on Saturday take direct aim at Russia’s central bank and seek to hobble the country’s connectivity to the global financial system. They are intended to destabilise the Russian economy, building on sanctions imposed in recent days that target oligarchs as well as its banks, high-tech companies and aircraft makers.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that Russia is going the way of Cuba and Iran in terms of the significance of the sanctions being imposed,” said Daniel Tannebaum, a former US Treasury sanctions official who is now a partner at Oliver Wyman, a consultancy.