In just 10 days, Russia has become the world's most sanctioned nation, doubling the number of sanctions against it and surpassing Iran, Syria and North Korea.
Castellum.AI, which tracks global sanctions, notes that Russia had 2,754 sanctions against it before Feb. 22, one day after Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine as independent and ordered Russian troops to the region. Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
As of Monday, 2,778 more sanctions had been added to Russia because of the invasion. The total of 5,532 sanctions now puts Russia atop the list of sanctioned countries, with Iran following at 3,616, Syria at 2,608 and North Korea at 2,077.
''This is financial nuclear war and the largest sanctions event in history,'' Peter Piatetsky, a co-founder of Catellum.AI and former Treasury Department official in the Obama and Trump administrations, told Bloomberg News.
''Russia went from being part of the global economy to the single largest target of global sanctions and a financial pariah in less than two weeks,'' he told Bloomberg.
Most of the previous sanctions against Russia were related to interfering with the 2016 U.S. presidential election and attacks on political dissidents in Russia and abroad.
The new sanctions largely hit individuals, including high-ranking Russian officials and oligarchs with connections to Putin. A growing list of private companies have also suspended operations in Russia and Belarus, which is cooperating with Russia, further crippling the nation's economy.
The actions have shown a surprising unity between the United States and NATO, and for both entities internally. But, as Bloomberg notes, it comes largely amid a reluctance to act militarily for fear of sparking a world war.
Switzerland has the most sanctions against Russia at 568, followed by the European Union with 518, France with 512 and the United States with 243.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.