The IMF says it will grow 1.5% this year

Officials mull making ‘temporary’ use of central bank funds. Wall Street banks say Russia could retaliate against seizure

A world in which Western sanctions are routinely expected is one in which punitive measures will become increasingly ineffective

There was much mirth in the West this week when Vladimir Putin’s Victory Day parade through Red Square included just one tank, itself a relic from a museum. The inference was that Russia has lost so much military kit in Ukraine that it is a shadow of the military superpower the Soviet Union used to be.

RIGA, Latvia — Only a small percentage of the hundreds of companies that promised to leave Russia after its invasion of Ukraine have exited, according to several groups keeping a scorecard — and for those that dawdled, departing has only become more expensive and complicated.

Sanctions always fail, as the Chinese found out long ago.

It is the macroeconomic course of Western nations, and above all the United States, that has become the root cause of most of the current problems.

In his State of the Union address, President Biden announced that Russia was “isolated from the world more than [it] ever has been.” He said that “We are choking off Russia’s access to technology that will sap its economic strength and weaken its military for years to come.”

To avoid sanctions, countries are actively reopening moribund routes and creating greater connectivity across the Middle East and Asia.

Rerouting of Moscow’s crude to India, China and Turkey has helped offset curbs elsewhere