Business | The ordnance in the arsenal

What other weapons could the West wheel out?

The debate turns to escrow accounts and secondary sanctions

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN has promised to “ratchet up the pain” for Vladimir Putin over Russian atrocities in Ukraine. The EU vows wave after wave of “rolling sanctions”. Momentum is growing in the West to fire the two big economic weapons that have so far been kept largely locked in the arsenal: an embargo on Russian oil and gas, and “secondary” sanctions, which would penalise people and entities from other countries that trade with Russia.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “The ordnance in the arsenal”

What China is getting wrong: It’s not just covid

From the April 16th 2022 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Business

Illustration of two wolf cubs sitting on the head of the wall street bull

Meet the ambitious wolf cubs of Wall Street

A duo of whippersnappers is taking on Goldman Sachs 

What next for US Steel?

The faded industrial icon has few good options without a Nippon deal


Foxconn's Model D electric vehicle .

Foxconn and other gadget-makers are expanding their empires

The world’s contract manufacturers are moving into new products and places


The signals of workplace submissiveness

Deference is all around you, unfortunately

America’s internet giants are being outplayed in the global south

From e-commerce to online banking, regional competitors are innovating rapidly

Will Mark Zuckerberg’s Trump gamble pay off?

He risks making enemies elsewhere