Russia’s plunging currency spells trouble for its war effort

A T FIRST GLANCE, it did not look that different from other sanctions. On November 21st America’s Treasury Department imposed new restrictions on more than four dozen Russian banks, including Gazprombank, the financial arm of the giant state gas firm. The bank, the largest in Russia not already subject to American sanctions, had been excluded from previous packages in order to allow some central and eastern European countries, including Austria, Hungary and Slovakia, to continue paying for imports of Russian gas. After December 20th, when the measures take full effect, European buyers of Russian gas will be forced to find workarounds involving either third-party banks or currencies other than the dollar, which will take time.