The first page of The Economic ' Times' of March 16, 2022, emblazoned with the opinion of leaders of corporate India, stated, “75% of CEOs see moderate or no impact of war on economy”. Going by the headline, it would appear that for us in India, global upheavals don't mean much. Even if they are as farreaching as sanctions on the Russian Central Bank, where, in an unprecedented move, the United States has frozen its foreign reserves. The Russian currency almost halved compared to early February, before recovering about half of the fall by mid-March.

Sanctions against Russia are not new. In fact, before the latest round, Russia was already 'sanctioned against by Western nations for its annexation of Crimea in 2014. What was different this time, however, was the freezing of assets of the central bank and the removal of Russian banks from SWIFT - a Belgian-based global messaging system for foreign-exchange transactions.

SWIFT disconnection is also not new sanctioned Iranian banks were disconnected in 2012, but the trade impact for the EU and the US was negligible. Unlike Iran, Russia is a dominant supplier of energy to Europe a - in particular to Germany - and supplies roughly a third of German and EU gas requirements. It also meets a third of German crude-oil requirement and over half of its coal needs. Despite the moral 'outrage' expressed at the Russian action against Ukraine, banks and entities that supply energy to the EU have been left outside the ambit of sanctions.

Secondary sanctions - an infringement of sovereignty