Unless you’ve been living under the biggest of rocks, you’ve probably heard that Russia has forcefully invaded Ukraine. Despite everyone in the world telling them not to, they knew that no one would offer military support so Russia went for it anyway. This doesn’t mean that the world has left Ukraine on its own, however.
Economy has become one of the most important things in our global politics, so the rest of the world has taken it upon themselves to actively exclude Russia from as much financial systems as possible, essentially bombing their rich instead of their people. Let’s take a look at some of the sanctions that have been taking against Russia in the last week.
Apple
While there’s not much a big company can really do, they have effectively stopped selling their flagship products like the iMac and iPhone in Russia. Whether or not this is something the Russians are truly going to feel is to be seen, but at least it’s a clear sign from Apple that they don’t want any Russian money if Ukrainian freedom is the price to pay.
Disney, Warner Brothers, Sony
Disney’s sanctions so far have just been limited to not releasing their movies in Russia. Big competitors of Disney like Warner Brothers and Sony have decided to follow suit almost instantly, meaning that pretty much 99% of all big movies won’t be releasing in Russia anymore.
SWIFT
While the world asked for a full ban from SWIFT for Russia, they didn’t quite get cut off. So far, only some of the biggest money streams have been halted through SWIFT but the banks that handle energy payments have managed to escape this sanction because many EU countries are dependent on Russian gas.
UEFA/FIFA
Not only has Russia been canceled as the home country of the next European Cup, Russian teams have also been banned from all UEFA and FIFA competitions until further notice. There’s also been talks that they might be coming back on having Gazprom as a big sponsor. Due to the commotion one of the Russian oligarchs, Roman Abramovich, also decided to sell his football club Chelsea and donate (part of) the money to Ukrainian relief support.
Mastercard/Visa
Visa and Mastercard have both blocked all Russian institutions from making payments through their services which means Russian companies will no longer be able to have small short-term loans, making the early hits of the economic sanctions hit that much harder.
Oracle
Oracle, which is mostly known for its corporate software database packages, has suspended all sales and activities in Russia. While that doesn’t sound like too much of a deal, that also means that Russian companies will no longer be able to rely on customer support whenever the software goes haywire, and we all know how often that happens. Oracle has also converted some of their office space into accommodation for refugees.
Airspace
Pretty much every country worth visiting has by now determined that their airspace is closed off for all Russian flights. That means that the entire Russian touristic sector now has to rely on their domestic flights, which is going to be a huge hit to that entire sector – where you usually have some rich Russian people at the very top.
McDonald’s, Coca-Cola
The fast food giant temporarily closes 850 locations in Russia. However, it will continue to pay its 62,000 Russian employees. Next, Coca-Cola company said it was suspending their operations in Russia. The list of foreign companies pulling out of Russia keeps growing.
