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New York
CNN Business
—
Russia isn’t a superpower, at least not when it comes to the global economy.
Its gross domestic product puts it as only the 12th largest economy in the world according to the International Monetary Fund, about 25% smaller than Italy and more than 20% smaller than Canada, two countries with a fraction of its population.
So in the face of its invasion of Ukraine, why is the West reluctant to hit it with the full range of available economic sanctions as has been done with other rogue states?
The answer is simple: Oil and natural gas.
Russia is the world’s largest exporter of natural gas and one of the largest exporters of oil. Some experts say cutting off those exports could drive up the prices of those commodities as much as 50% by some estimates, far more than far more modest single-digit spikes in prices experienced this past…
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