[rswail]

Sanctions when applied properly can work. They need to actually impact directly on those who are politically powerful, while also imposing difficulties day-to-day on the general population, which encourages unrest and internal disputes.

Russia thought it had protected itself by having low foreign debt and large foreign reserves. What it didn't count on was that the US and EU reserve banks would freeze its foreign reserves, while also getting SWIFT and the MC/Visa payment networks to disconnect from the Russian banking system.

There currently is no alternative for foreign currency exchange and Russia has had to engage in much less efficient and expensive (because they are being made to pay through the nose) foreign exchange through China's nascient payment systems, which means they are exchanging rubles for yuan, instead of USD/EUR.

[alaricus]

India, Turkey, China and others are switching to alternative payments for Russian commodities.

Europe is opening Ruble accounts with Gazprombank to keep the gas flowing.

These sanctions hurt the monopoly of American financial system more than anyone else.