Waging and winning the economic war against Moscow?

WHEN historians recall the recent decision by Western governments to try to cap the price of Russian oil on global markets, they might describe it as a smart and creative plan that helped reduce the funding for President Vladimir Putin’s war, a diplomatic achievement that helped Ukraine halt the Russian invasion. And to attain that goal with minimal costs for the economies that import oil from Russia was just brilliant!

Or perhaps the historians would describe the plan devised by policymakers in Washington and rolled out by the Group of 7 wealthy nations last week (Sep 2) as misguided and silly, and explain that it had no chance of succeeding, and demonstrated that when it comes to military wars, employing economic power may not be enough to win victories.

In fact, it’s time to admit that the US-led alliance’s efforts to try to crush Russia’s US$1.8 trillion economy with a set of massive economic sanctions, including the freezing of Russia’s currency reserves and embargoing that country’s oil imports, haven’t been quite effective.