All-out economic warfare is the best way to stop Putin
“Putin must fail.” These are the words of the British prime minister, Boris Johnson.
The way to do this is via all-out economic warfare, not the weak sanctions and half-measures that have been put in place so far. All political, diplomatic, military and economic means, short of war with Russia, must be deployed in synergy to ensure Ukraine continues to resist and Russia weakens and fails. Providing weapons, supplies and intelligence to the Ukrainian armed forces is key. But much more must be done right now to wage economic warfare to undermine Putin’s capacity to continue this war.
We need to deplete Russian state income by limiting its trade with the west. Every day, the US, UK and EU buy more than $700m worth of oil, gas and other commodities from Russia. Some of Russia’s largest state-owned companies, which are key for commodities trading, have not been sanctioned. Economies in Europe, especially Germany and Italy, must start preparing now for life without Russian gas and threaten a full embargo.
In the financial sector, we must impose blanket sanctions against all Belarusian and Russian banks and put them on the US specially designated nationals list – which will block their assets and make it illegal for anyone in the US to do business with them. All Russian and Belarusian banks should be disconnected from the world’s main banking messaging service, Swift. Sanctions should be imposed on rouble clearing, meaning no transactions in roubles are possible and in effect trade is blocked, and there must be a full ban on US and UK public sector pension funds from holding Russian assets. Cryptocurrency wallets linked to Russia should be identified and seized.
Finally, the 5,000 members of the Russian political, economic and
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