russian monopoly money is now at a 2 year high so is this the work of artificially inflating their

[former9thward]

3. Sanctions don't work.

Even with isolated countries like N. Korea they don't work. NK has been under sanctions forever and their behavior (and government) has never changed. They especially will not work with Russia. The vast majority of the world's countries are not participating in the sanctions. Even our neighbor, Mexico, is not participating.

Russia has been preparing for this for years. They have developed their own credit card system and can ignore the Western brands. They have done the same thing with banking. They are keeping the price of oil up and are making huge profits -- even selling at a discount -- to China, India and scores of other countries in Asia, Africa and S. America.