After the threat of sweeping sanctions didn’t deter Russia’s attack on Ukraine, U.S. Treasury Department officials and their counterparts in Europe now face the task of carrying through on their vow to make Russia’s economy and its elites pay a price.
Key questions are whether sanctions will work and how to measure their impact.
With inflation already at record highs, a global pandemic that keeps businesses struggling to reopen and an energy shortage throughout Europe, the right way to punish one of the world’s major economies can be complex to tease out.
A first round of more narrowly targeted sanctions and threats of much more serious ones didn’t keep Russian President Vladimir Putin from announcing the military operation launched Thursday in Ukraine and warning other countries that any attempt to interfere would lead to “consequences they have never seen.” As Putin spoke, big explosions were heard in Kyiv, Kharkiv and other areas of Ukraine.
