As Russia stepped up its aggression against Ukraine to the point of a full-fledged invasion, the U.S. and its allies unleashed a series of historic and unprecedented economic sanctions.
"It's a kind of coordination that we haven't seen in a multilateral sanctions program for a long time," said Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, CEO of Bourse & Bazaar, an economic think tank. "And the second thing is basically speed, the way in which the sanctions have been very quickly applied to Russia. Moving from a period in which we were talking about quite targeted measures to basically broad financial sanctions is remarkable and is probably the most unprecedented aspect of the sanctions program so far."
Russia has now overtaken Iran as the most sanctioned country in the world. But as the historical example of that Middle East nation shows, sanctions also carry unintended consequences. What happens to everyday Russian citizens with their country being increasingly isolated from the world's financial and economic systems? Does Russia move closer to Western adversaries such as China and Iran?
Watch the video above to find out what economic moves the U.S. and its allies have taken, and what's next as a new economic cold war continues.
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