The removal of Russia from the SWIFT network and the suffocation of its exports was going to cripple the nation's banking sector and send it into an economic death spiral.  Corporate media economists and Biden Administration representatives alike compared the financial warfare strategy to a kind of "cancel culture" action on a global scale.  The very first modern cancellation of a country.

Well, needless to say, sanctions did not turn out the way the establishment expected.  Initial reports in US and European media claimed that Russian businesses were struggling to stay afloat and some argued that the Russian populace might even revolt against the Kremlin in anger.  But this was all a farce, much like the majority of reports suggesting Ukrainian victory was imminent. 

Rather than imploding, Russian exports and imports are thriving.  The nation printed an oil export surge at the end of 2023, as well as increased exports on a number of raw goods from oil seeds to grains in 2023.  Most of the export rise can be attributed to closer trade ties with Asia, a move which western governments should have expected.  In fact, the NATO tactic of using Ukraine as a proxy battleground has only driven eastern economies like China and India closer to Russia. 

Tucker Carlson, one of the few western journalists reporting on the conflict without anti-Russian bias, took the opportunity while visiting the country to go shopping in a local retail mall.  The experiment was meant to examine how much inflation and economic hardship was punishing the Russian public.  What he found, in fact, was relatively low inflation and stable price averages compared to the US.