As soon as the pandemic eased a little, there was another problem waiting for us at the door. It’s not like people did not realize that there will be a war sooner or later with all the chaos being created by sabotage groups in Ukraine. It’s just that war is supposed to be the most extreme step taken when no other measure is more logical, tactical, and beneficial with humanity being the main focal point but nevertheless, Russia did take the most extreme step, and with that decision came an enormous storm of sanctions imposed on Russia by other countries.
But why in the world are countries imposing sanctions on Russia when they should be sending military help to UKRAINE - that was my first thought as a human who just came out of the overwhelming COVID-19 pandemic.
What is a SANCTION?
It's a penalty imposed mainly with an intent to threaten those who try to break laws or rules. Sanctions are intentional restrictions with the primary purpose of hurting a particular country or individual’s finances. Now again these sanctions can vary in a wide range, they can literally be anything from asset freezing, to ban on import/export of goods, to travel bans on individuals. These restraints do not just limit to individuals, government bodies, terrorist groups it can also be applied to corporations and companies in order to control any sort of action that hinders world peace and progress.
In my words it's like getting grounded for doing something you are not supposed to do, the only difference is that this hurts a particular country’s or individual’s economy real bad.
Why is everyone imposing it on RUSSIA?
Given the current situation of Russia at war with Ukraine, planning to do a joint military operation with all countries together in order to control the unruly situation by Russia might not turn out to be in the best interests of Ukraine or humanity in general. So here’s where sections come into play - a bloodless way out that can cause harm equivalent to or sometimes more than what bullets and bombs can do to a particular nation.
So to explicitly state, imposing strict sanctions on Russia has one straight message “If you mess up with humanity or world peace without a very good reason you pay for it” The long list of sanctions imposed is basically a hard warning to Russia, which can get even worse if the war keeps on developing further ahead.
What good would sanctions do in a war fought with weapons?
Yes, I get it. While actual soldiers and people are fighting on the battleground that once was home to a lot of Ukrainians, what good would some restrictions by countries around the world even do?
Well to break the suspense, it does turn out that sanctions throw a country into a lamentable economic state, the country’s currency value decreases which leads to a price hike giving birth to horrific inflation which eventually handicap’s a nation’s ability to even function normally and thus the country cannot continue the war any longer simply because it cannot afford one.
Thusly sanctions are a win-win situation, the sanctioned country is defeated outside the battleground without losing the lives of people.
Sanctions & their effects - a Russian saga of its economic destruction
I agree I'm being a little too dramatic with the subtitle here but decide for yourself after we analyze all the sanctions that are imposed on Russia.
According to the data by Castellum.AI Russia currently is the world’s most sanctioned country with a total of 5,581 sanctions imposed on it.
Country-wise breakdown of the sanctions:
1. The United States of America
The US has imposed the biggest no. of the sanctions on Russia which mainly include:
- [ ]The financial institutions of Russia have been banned from getting involved in any sort of transaction in American dollars.
- [ ] Blocks on export have also been imposed which mainly include restrictions on technology that include telecommunication, sensors, semiconductors, navigation, encryption security, etc. the Russian funds in US dollars cannot be accessed by Russia anymore.
- [ ] Sanctions have also been imposed on billionaire families in charge of corruption and mostly those who are said to be close to Kremlin. but before we move on, let’s also understand what Kremlin is
Kremlin: It is a bunch of buildings with walls, and its enormously huge, but what makes it a point of importance is it includes the residence of the President and administrative buildings
2. The European Union
With 926 sanctions imposed on Russia, European Union’s main sanctions include:
- [ ]
Russian airlines have now been restricted from the EU airspace.
- [ ]
Sanctions are imposed on Russian elites and especially on Vladimir Putin to freeze their assets.
3. United Kingdom
The UK too has sanctioned an asset freeze for major Russian banks, National Russian airline has also been banned from UK airspace.
And the list goes on for 2827 newly imposed sanctions which aim to handicap Russia’s Economic Stability.
Major countries have also agreed to cut Russia off from SWIFT, but what is it?
SWIFT: stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) It is a messaging system used by financial institutions for making international transactions that are safe, secure, and quick.
While you might wonder what’s a big deal if Russian is no more a part of SWIFT. In my opinion, it is a big deal, you are completely removed from the international transaction forum, which makes it very difficult for Russia to buy or sell goods in the global market, although this sanction might as well create problems for countries that depend on Russia for oil and gas as it’ll be harder to make the transactions.
Conclusion
Last few weeks I have been the most immature version of myself, where I wanted all the world to unite and send their military forces to help Ukraine win the war. But who am I fooling, wars do no good to either side. It’s the humans that fight and die in the process.
The thought that there are people just like me, my family, my neighbors who were just living a normal life did nothing wrong, had absolutely nothing to do with any of this have to now live for I don’t know how long with a constant fear of death, leaving behind things they thought were so precious to them, or maybe they are still stuck in the horrific war zone.
These thoughts keep on executing in an infinite loop in my head and no explanation in the world can justify the spine-chilling feeling of our fellow humans who exactly like us just happened to be in UKRAINE are going through right now.
Starting a world war might not be the best idea, but someone has to do something to stop all of this, someone has to think about people whose normal life has suddenly turned into news headlines and Social media posts of ‘Ukraine in pieces’ because they had a life they cherished before all of this and the fact is it was theirs - they lived with freedom, slept in peace and ate in joy but the current situation is so far from that “normal life” and they can do nothing about it.