Russian economy is permanently destroyed; citizens daily lives hit
The ruble gloomily sinks down as offshore trade evaporates, banks are empty, Russians rush to markets while inflation suffocates them.
Crushing Major Sanctions
SWIFT (The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) block Russian off from 11,000 financial institutions. Many thousands who receive global payments are not getting their dues, inflation is choking lives while black marketing is prowling the already bankrupt nation.
Russian oligarchs in other nations are being told to leave!
Nations like the UK, USA, EU, and Canada are freezing Russian assets and canceling deals with Russia.
Economic Global Sanctions
Russian citizens are feeling the pain of international sanctions more than anyone else. During the first four days of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Russia spent more than $7 billion and it is now estimated that the daily cost of war for Russia would be $20 billion a day!
The Russian ruble is now worth less than a penny and the Russian stock market was closed this week due to these heavy losses. The two major payment processing networks Russia used, Visa and Mastercard are now blocked to Russia whereby earlier had a 70% usage. Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay are all suspended.
Banks and ATMs are flooded with Russians desperately trying to take out cash in a mad rush while ATMs are going dry and banks are undergoing the crisis of bank run whereby they are unable to attend to the distraught crowds.
Russians are frantically buying smartphones and laptops, and other electrical equipment fearing that these essentials would run out soon from the market. All the western businesses are shutting down. People are leaving Russia, and the nation feels isolated.
Netflix has pulled out of Russia and stopped Russian users signing up in new accounts, Tik Tok suspends services, Apple stopped sales in Russia, Samsung halts product shipments to Russia, Microsoft suspends all sales in Russia, HP has suspended all shipments to Russia complying with US sanctions, Apple stops product sales, chip sales to Russia from AMD, Intel are stopped, McDonald’s are stopped.
Oil giants like BP and Exon Mobile have stopped services to Russia. Prominent branded cars like BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes, Jaguar, Toyota, and Honda have stopped exporting their cars to Russia and also stopped production in Russia.
Airplanes like Airbus and Boeing have now announced that they will not send their spare parts to Russia.
Huge brands like Puma and H&M have stopped operations in Russia and big furniture companies like IKEA closes their stores in Russia. Airbnb stopped operations.
Sports doors close when FIFA and UEFA are suspending the Russian sports teams and clubs. Formula 1 racing, also halts its racing plans with Russia.
In a huge move, thirty-three nations close their airspace to Russia. Notably, this affected 150,000 Russian tourists outside Russia who are now stranded in foreign lands and cannot come home, but perhaps at a time like this, it is safer they are out!
How Has This Destroyed Russia
In January 2022 $1 was equivalent to 69 Russian rubles and now, in March 2022 $1 is equivalent to 150 Russian rubles! The Russian ruble has fallen so low and the nation is on the edge of breakdown. Inflation is hitting the ceiling and people just cannot cope with the payment systems let alone simple daily living.
Russia, though a superpower is immensely affected by the war even though the war is not in its own country and the tragedy is that the average Russian citizens’ standard of living will fall below the poverty line and all of this is just for the ego of Vladimir Putin who need not have gone on a full-fledged war to prove a point. Surely, his nation was not under attack and he could have avoided the war.
The truth is Vladimir Putin attacked because of a projectional fear he had which would not have materialized because in this day and age, every nation largely wants to avoid a war, and mostly, a nuclear war. Did he not realize the cost of war would be so high and it would only destroy the lives of his own people in the end? While we can blame these nations for evoking these sanctions, it is perhaps better than initiating a nuclear war at the end of it all.
Rita
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