Putin’s Answer to U.S. Sanctions Is More Economic Isolation

  • Russia will continue down path to autarky: IIF’s Ribakova
  • Russia has already reduced exposure to dollars, added to gold

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters building in Moscow on April 15.

Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg
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Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to respond to the latest round of U.S. sanctions threats as he has to past ones: by speeding his drive to make Russia’s economy more self-sufficient.

In the seven years since Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Putin’s government and central bank have stripped back the country’s exposure to dollars, shifted assets out of the U.S. and sold a smaller share of its debt to foreigners.