ANALYSIS: Ten days ago, the West did the unthinkable — and Putin didn't see it coming
That action broke the bond of trust that makes a bank a bank. And while effective — Russia can't get access to hundreds of billions of foreign dollars it has painstakingly built up to buy supplies and support the rouble on currency markets — it can only be done at this scale once.
China will have taken note and won't be entrusting any more foreign assets to banks in France, Germany, Italy, the UK and the US than it can afford to lose. Freezing foreign reserves has been done before — but only to the less powerful nations like Iran, Afghanistan and Venezuela. This is the first time it's ever been done to a member of theThe rouble has collapsed 40 per cent. Denied access to the foreign currency it would need to support the rouble in the market, Russia's central bank has attempted to stem the tide by more than doubling its key interest rate, lifting it from 9.