This column is an opinion by Yrjo Koskinen, the BMO professor of sustainable and transition finance at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary. For more information about CBC’s Opinion section, please see the FAQ.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, the West’s reaction appeared to surprise everybody, including Russia. The United States, the European Union and others responded quickly and decisively by imposing punishing economic sanctions, by targeting Russian assets abroad and by sending Ukraine significant supplies of weapons.
The most consequential actions were freezing the Russian Central Bank’s gold and foreign exchange reserves and limiting Putin’s access to the Russian sovereign wealth fund’s assets. Russia had
