Economic Sanctions Cause Collateral Damage

Throughout history, war has been declared by powerful elites and fought by brave people of much less fortune. In more traditional wars, people on the front lines have seen their houses burned, their families devastated, and their communities torn apart. And while elites can certainly experience loss, their losses pale in comparison to the losses of the non-elites.

But there is a new form of war: economic war. Unfortunately, economic war only targets the non-elites, leaving the elites virtually unscathed.

Consider the economic sanctions placed on Russia resulting from the unjust invasion of Ukraine. Removing Russia from the SWIFT bank messaging system and other financial sanctions designed to limit the Russian Central Bank’s ability to liquidate its assets or to otherwise access its international reserves does nothing to prevent Putin from waging war, nor does it affect his personal wealth. He himself has said that he is “indifferent” to the sanctions. Instead, the people who bear the brunt of these sanctions are the people standing in long lines at ATMs around the country. These are not Russia’s rich oligarchs, but parents and grandparents trying desperately to acquire the money necessary to put food on the table for their families.