Punishing Putin: Inside the Global Economic War to Bring Down Russia

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An in-depth, authoritative, and timely look at the unprecedented economic war against Russia after Putin's invasion of Ukraine written by a veteran journalist with unparalleled access to Western and Russian sources
Undeterred by eight years of timid US sanctions, Vladimir Putin ordered his full-scale assault on Ukraine on February 24, 2022. In the hours that followed across the world, Western leaders weaponised economic tools to counter an unprecedented land grab by a nuclear-armed power. What followed was an undeniably world-changing financial experiment that risked throwing the world into a devastating recession. The end goal was simple: to sap the strength of Putins war machine and damage the Russian economyonce the eleventh largest on the planet. Here, Russian expert and veteran journalist Stephanie Baker explains in fascinating detail how this furious shadow-war unfolded: its causes, how it is being executed, and its ability to affect Russia and the course of history.

From seizing superyachts to manipulating the global price of oil to trying to block the sale of military technology to Russia, we learn how the White House coordinated with top officials in London and Brussels to freeze a staggering $300 billion in foreign currency reserves accumulated in the West by Russia's central bank. Mobilizing an army of white collar-crime investigators and experts on international law, Baker explores how the West has cracked down on illicit Russian money by targeting oligarchs, one superyacht at a time, and their enablers around the world

Filled with propulsive, fly-on-the-wall details, Punishing Putin takes us into the frantic backroom deliberations that led to a whole new era of carefully calculated economic statecraft and shows how these new strategies are already radically rearranging global alliances that will influence the world order today, and for generations to come.

Author Bio

Stephanie Baker is an award-winning journalist and Senior Writer at Bloomberg, and has been covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine since February 2022. Stephanie has chronicled the rise and fall of Russian billionaires and has written extensively about sanctions placed on Russia since 2018. She lived in Moscow during the mid-1990s, reporting on the economic transformation of Russia for The Moscow Times, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Bloomberg. Stephanie appears regularly on BBC TV and Radio, Bloomberg Television, NPR and PBS. Punishing Putin is her first book.