John Smith spoke to the New York Times about the U.S. Treasury Department moving to further cut off Russia from the global economy, announcing that it would immobilize Russian central bank assets that are held in the U.S. and impose sanctions on the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth fund that is run by a close ally of President Vladimir Putin.
“This is simply unprecedented to a scale and scope that we haven’t seen since the Cold War,” John said. “Sanctions against the Central Bank of Russia and the central bank’s assets held worldwide are simply beyond comparison to previous sanctions regimes, particularly involving a major power like Russia.”
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