The SWIFT sanctions go into effect tomorrow...

[Ohio Joe]

The Russian economy is already devastated and tomorrow there will be little of it left. I suspect Putin will either hasten a withdrawal or step up the war crimes. My hope is that the oligarchs take him out quickly now. Regardless of which way Russia goes, I expect lots of fast-moving news on the war over the next several days.

[RKP5637]

1. Interesting, thanks for posting, I had lost track of what date, yeah, might see escalations or

whatever. I get really anxious just sitting and watching these insane and horrific events happen - and bombing in the helpless. WTF.

[FakeNoose]

2. I think this means their credit cards will no longer work

Am I right? Already their cash is almost worthless. Now they can't use credit cards once the SWIFT sanctions go into effect.

The rubles are still worth something inside of Russia, as long as they buy Russian goods. But nobody outside of Russia will accept rubles for anything because they're worth so little. Russia will have hyper-inflation or maybe it's already happening. Hyper-inflation happened in Germany between the wars, before Hitler came to power. That's when the government prints more worthless money and prices go up exponentially every day. People are forced to spend their paychecks immediately when they get them because the money is worth less each day.

Putin may be crazy, but the oligarchs aren't, they're businessmen and they can see that Putin is ruining the country.

[Fiendish Thingy]

3. It means wire transfers won't work- meaningless to the avg person, but to businesses & the rich

It’s a big deal- no way to send/receive large amounts of money outside of Russia for, say oil sales or luxury items.

The fact that it took two weeks to take effect probably means most rich Russians not directly targeted by sanctions have already left and moved their money out of the country.

[lagomorph777]

4. Thanks for the heads-up; I think your guesses are fair.

Really hard to predict at this point. Maybe a bit of both. Short-term increase in brutality followed by medium-term weakening of resolve.