Unless you’ve been living under the biggest of rocks, you’ve probably heard that Russia has forcefully invaded Ukraine. Despite everyone in the world telling them not to, they knew that no one would offer military support so Russia went for it anyway. This doesn’t mean that the world has left Ukraine on its own, however.
Economy has become one of the most important things in our global politics, so the rest of the world has taken it upon themselves to actively exclude Russia from as much financial systems as possible, essentially bombing their rich instead of their people. Let’s take a look at some of the sanctions that have been taking against Russia in the last week.
Apple
While there’s not much a big company can really do, they have effectively stopped selling their flagship products like the iMac and iPhone in Russia. Whether or not this is something the Russians are truly going to feel is to be seen, but at least it’s a clear sign from Apple that they don’t want any Russian money if Ukrainian freedom is the price to pay.
Disney, Warner Brothers, Sony
Disney’s sanctions so far have just been limited to not releasing their movies in Russia. Big competitors of Disney like Warner Brothers and Sony have decided to follow suit almost instantly, meaning that pretty much 99% of all big movies won’t be releasing in Russia anymore.
SWIFT
While the world asked for a full ban from SWIFT for Russia, they didn’t quite get cut off. So far, only some of the biggest money streams have been halted through SWIFT but the banks that handle energy payments have managed to escape this sanction because many EU countries are dependent on Russian gas.
