Never beforehave Western economicsanctions proliferatedin such numbers. More have been slapped on entities connected to Russia since its invasion of Ukraine on February 24th than had been applied to entities worldwide in the previous decade, says Paul Feldberg, a partner in the London branch of Jenner & Block, a law firm. Big money is at stake. In 2014 America finedbnpParibas, a bank, nearly $9bn for violating sanctions on Cuba, Iran and Sudan. But governments out toenforce the sanctions, and companies trying to stay on the right side of them, are finding the work devilishly hard. Many of the Russian entities subject to sanctions are much bigger, more complex and more deeply embedded in global business networks than previous targets in, say,Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Syria orVenezuela.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Spies like us”
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