Since Russia first launched its "special military operation" against Ukraine in February 2022, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Japan have imposed more than 16,500 sanctions on Russia.
This may be one of the biggest black swan events since World War II, although it has been reported a few days ago.
Now, with the second anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union have announced new sanctions against Russia.
What are sanctions?
Sanctions are imposed by one country on another country, and their purpose may be to benefit itself and a certain region, which is essentially a game of interests and comprehensive considerations.
In today's globalized world, sanctions may be one of the most draconian measures that can be taken outside of military warfare.
Two years have passed since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and in these two years, the number of people on both sides has reached hundreds of thousands, and the economic losses are even more difficult to estimate, of course, the impact of this incident on the entire geopolitical situation may be more far-reaching.
And the world, especially Europe and the United States, have more different strategic choices with this conflict.
Just recently, the United States ** Biden announced the imposition of 500 new sanctions against Russia, of which nearly 100 companies or individuals will be subject to export restrictions.
The United Kingdom has also imposed new bans on Russian metals, diamonds and energy exports, and the European Union has announced sanctions against 200 organizations and individuals, saying that it has helped Russia obtain ** or remove Ukrainian children from their homes.
In the past two years, Russia has been subjected to more than 16,500 sanctions, and the main targets of these sanctions are Russian funds.
$350 billion worth of Russia's foreign exchange reserves have been frozen, which is about half of Russia's total foreign exchange reserves.
Separately, the European Union said that about 70% of the assets of Russian banks were also frozen, and some of them were excluded from the SWIFT international funds clearing system.
In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, some Western companies have also left Russia, either actively or passively; Hundreds of large companies, including McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Heineken, and others, have stopped selling and producing goods in Russia.
With sanctions, there are ways to evade them, and Russia has managed to send oil abroad above the G7 ceiling, according to the Atlantic Council, a US think tank, which says a "shadow fleet" of about 1,000 cruise ships is used to transport oil.
In addition to this, Russia has been able to import many sanctioned Western goods through countries such as Georgia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
According to the International Monetary Organization, in 2022, the first year of the military conflict, the Russian economy shrank by 21%, the agency ** Russian economy will grow by 2 in 20232%, which will grow by 11%。
And according to the U.S. Treasury Department, the sanctions have taken a toll on Russia, reducing its economic growth by 5% over the past two years.
Internally, more than 1 million people, many of them highly educated or economically powerful, have left the country in the two years since the military conflict began.
These people did not join the fight when Russia needed them the most, but chose to leave Russia, more than a million people, the vast majority of whom are above the middle class in Russia, and only this part of the people has the possibility to leave Russia.
Of course, these are visible changes, and there are some changes, no longer in Russia, but in other places, such as NATO.
According to Russia, the special military operation launched against Ukraine is to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO and prevent NATO from further expanding, but with the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, NATO's territory has seen the most significant expansion since it expanded to Eastern Europe in the 90s of the last century.
In the past two years, NATO has welcomed two member states, Sweden and Finland.
Since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022, Sweden and Finland have abandoned their long-standing military non-alignment policy, and in May of the same year, they both applied for NATO to seek asylum.
Finland was granted NATO membership in April last year, while Sweden has been hampered by Turkey and Hungary, which recently approved Sweden's accession to NATO after Turkey ratified Sweden in January.
At this point, Sweden became the 32nd member of NATO.
Swedish Prime Minister Kristersson called it a "historic day" and said he was "ready to assume our responsibilities in NATO."
And this change is largely the result of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, which in turn is Russia's justification.
History is amazingly dramatic in a sense.
Sweden has a large defense industry of its own, and its accession will add a technologically advanced army to NATO, improve supply routes through neighboring Finland, and help defend Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Sweden itself is raising its military spending, estimating that it will meet NATO's target of 2 percent of gross domestic product for defense spending this year.
In the past two years, the world has faintly felt like it has returned to the camp confrontation of decades ago; Europe as a whole is becoming more united, whether this is their imaginary adversary or a real adversary, and inevitably, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has made this possibility rise dramatically.
And this is also the biggest change in this world.
In the past, globalization was very simple, it was based on pure market principles, there were many opportunities, the labor force was cheap, investment was going to the first, and foreign capital was going to the first.
But with the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the entire West has become more and more aware that ** also needs to be built on values, so Yellen proposed the concept of "friendly shore outsourcing", that is, to hand over ** orders to those countries with equal values to themselves.
And the first is no longer completely market-oriented, but also to take into account strategic security, which is also the biggest change in the whole world in the past two years.
Of course, the West has essentially become more united, perhaps for the first time since World War II, and NATO has gained an unprecedented expansion of its membership, which has to some extent exacerbated the West's military geography and strategic position.
In other words, the West is closer and stronger today.
That's certainly not a good thing, but it doesn't seem like a bad thing either.
From our point of view, we have benefited from the introduction of the market economy to today, in a sense, thanks to today's very stable globalization system, there is no major war, and the market principle is followed, and it is this peaceful globalization pattern that gives us time and space to rise.
In other words, we have benefited from this international system.
So what is the same thing about this world?
I believe that the pursuit of a peaceful environment is a great goal that will never change, but it is difficult for us to predict whether the international system will be able to undergo new changes and what conflicts will be brought about by the rise of new powers.
This reminds me of a famous saying, once there is suspicion in the heart, then the seeds of doubt will grow and eventually take root.
And the current situation may have reached that moment.
Some time ago, when Emperor Pu was interviewed by an American reporter, he said that compared with Russia, we have a population of more than one billion, and we are a real big country, not only in terms of population, but also in the military.
It is self-evident what this sentence means, so in the coming years and decades, no matter how the situation between Russia and Ukraine evolves, no matter what the outcome of the negotiations is, it is time for us to make a choice.
We are facing a NATO that has continued to expand since the 90s of the last century, and its members include the United States, Canada, Britain and France, which are very old advanced economies, and now, their internal cohesion is at its highest.
These are changes and foregone conclusions, the difference lies in how we look at it and how we act.
end.Author: Luo sir, the workplace reference of the new youth. Concerned about the logic behind the development of things, optimistic pessimists. Follow me and grind the knowledge to you.
List of high-quality authors