1:36 am: Russia now an “economic and financial pariah”
The United States seems satisfied with the declarations of Ursula von der Leyen. Sanctions aimed at excluding Russian banks from the global system and hampering the country’s central bank make Russia a “global economic and financial pariah”, says a senior US official. And, according to him, the Russian Central Bank “cannot support the ruble”.
‘Only Putin can decide what extra cost he is willing to bear,’ he says, adding that a task force will ‘hunt down’ Russian oligarchs’ ‘yachts, jets, luxury cars and luxury homes’ .