Better Sanctions on Russia are Needed by Ricardo Hausmann, Ulrich Schetter and Muhammed Yildirim
Project SyndicateNov 01, 2022
On Thursday, the UK government said it has frozen more than £18B ($20.5B) of Russian assets from businesses, businessmen, and other individuals over the war in Ukraine — surpassing Libya and Iran as the UK's most sanctioned country.
Per a government release, the assets of more than 1.2k individuals, 120 businesses, and 19 Russian banks have been frozen — adding up to around £6B ($6.8B) more than the amount held against all other British-sanctioned regimes.
While Western sanctions have been effective and should be lauded, they so far have been on capital goods that take longer to impact the Russian economy. Western allies need to ensure that they're all simultaneously imposing restrictions on narrowly defined, war-specific goods that will cripple Putin's war effort exponentially more.
It's hypocritical to impose sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine but not on the US for invading Iraq for equally unjustified reasons or on Israel for invading and annexing Arab lands. The West needs to take a hard look at its double standards.