The US has frozen tens of billions of dollars worth of assets belonging to Russians and their government. A legal scholar explains why confiscating them is a bit trickier.
People march in Saskatoon, Sask., with the flag of Ukraine during a rally mourning the deaths of civilians killed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Heywood Yu
Canada has played the role of a global peace advocate before. Rarely has the world needed it more than right now.
There are few ways for the West to deter the rise of another dictator like Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images
In recent years, Western governments have, in effect, aided the rise of personalist dictators in Russia, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Venezuela.
Everyday Russians, like these people in Moscow, may shoulder much of the burden of the world’s economic sanctions aimed at Vladimir Putin and his oligarchs.
AFP via Getty Images
A closer look at Bitcoin transactions suggests ordinary Russians are the ones buying more cryptocurrency, hoping to hang onto savings as the ruble’s value plummets.
The yacht Amore Vero is docked in the Mediterranean resort of La Ciotat, France. French authorities have seized the yacht linked to Igor Sechin, a Vladimir Putin ally who runs Russian oil giant Rosneft, as part of EU sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
(AP Photo/Bishr Eltoni)
The targeting of elite interests has been at the centre of recent sanctions policies, including sanctions on Russia. We look at the effectiveness of targeting in Iran in the 2010s.
People in the Russian city of St. Petersburg stand in line to withdraw U.S. dollars and euros from an ATM. Ordinary Russians faced the prospect of higher prices as western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine sent the ruble plummeting.
(AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
Over-reliance on sanctions and economic warfare measures have led to strategic complacency and the avoidance of negotiations on the part of the western governments.
Ordinary Russians are facing the prospect of higher prices as western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine sent the ruble plummeting. That’s led uneasy people to line up at banks and ATMs on Monday in a country that has seen more than one currency disaster in the post-Soviet era.
(AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)
Warring countries have ben imposing sanctions on their enemies for hundreds of years. They have met with mixed success.
Women look at a screen displaying exchange rate at a currency exchange office in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Russian currency has plunged against the U.S. dollar after the West imposed severe economic sanctions.
(AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
Some economic sanctions may violate international law principles, including those the sanctions are intended to enforce. They may therefore undermine the very legal regimes Canadians champion.
People walk past a currency exchange office screen in Moscow displaying the exchange rates of the U.S. dollar and the euro and to the Russian ruble a few days after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Economic sanctions have caused the currency to plummet, causing hardship to citizens.
(AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)
As the world rightfully fears for the Ukrainian people, we must not turn a blind eye to Russians who are also Putin’s victims and will suffer the most from economic sanctions.
The EU, UK and US hold considerable leverage, but they need to make complex calculations about how to use it.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s popularity is on the rise again, but conflict with Ukraine may eventually change that.
Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images
Approximately 69% of Russians approve of President Vladimir Putin. But a costly war is likely to chip away at his popularity, history and data tell us.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with U.S. President Joe Biden via videoconference on Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021.
Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
The Biden administration has threatened severe sanctions if Russia were to invade Ukraine. An economic sanctions scholar explains why they probably won’t be effective.
The U.S. Justice Department was among many federal agencies and private companies whose networks suffered intrusions from Russian hackers.
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
For one, you can’t break an economy that’s already broken.
A line of cars spills on to the street as drivers wait to fill their tanks at a fuel station in Cabimas, Venezuela, in May 2019. U.S. sanctions on oil-rich Venezuela appear to be taking hold, resulting in mile-long lines for fuel and other hardships.
AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
The devastating costs of economic sanctions on Venezuela are being ignored or disregarded. So too is the lack of a legal basis for international intervention.
Iranian officials show off the U.S. drone they shot out of the sky.
Meghdad Madadi/Tasnim News Agency
Trump announced ‘hard-hitting’ new sanctions on Iran in response to the attack on a US drone. A peace studies scholar explains why sanctions rarely work.
Private companies – many based in the US – are blocking access to their websites from particular countries around the world. It’s contributing to a splintering of the global internet.