[tuatoru]

> My personal feeling (contrary to most comments here) is that the sanctions have a terrible effect on the USA and Europe .. [etc]

Russia's GDP is about 5% that of the US and the EU combined. It's not big enough to "destabilise" anything. Brexit (loss of an economy 4x larger than Russia's) is not having a terrible effect on the EU.

Wannabe competitors to SWIFT are even smaller in relative size, and as for India and China working together on something for a long period of time... well, I think India wants to retain access to the developed world's economy.

Sure, Russia shutting off gas supplies to the EU would be inconvenient for a while, but it would be more than inconvenient for Russia.

[lr1970]

> Brexit (loss of an economy 4x larger than Russia's) is not having a terrible effect on the EU.

By Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) the GDP of Russia (4,365,443 $MM) is larger than the GDP of UK (3,751,845 $MM) [1]. Stating that UK economy is 4x of Russia's does not seem to have a basic in reality.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)

[lostmsu]

Why would you use PPP in this case? PPP makes sense only for individuals spending their money.