Biden’s Sanctions Threat Won’t Deter Putin on Ukraine Crisis

The Russian financial system is much more insulated against Western pressure than many economist and analysts report and realize With Russian troops mounting on Ukraine’s border threatening an invasion, speculation is rife over whether Joe Biden’s threatened new sanctions will be enough to deter Moscow’s aggression and change its calculus. The Biden administration is reportedly weighing a sweeping raft of punitive measures that could cripple Russia’s access to bond markets, squeeze its top commercial banks, curb its ability to convert rubles to dollars, and possibly even cut its access to the international SWIFT banking transfer system. Biden has said there…