#226 Russian Rubles, Western Sanctions w/ Kristy Ironside
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 7 March 2022
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Vladimir Putin's decision to launch a brutal invasion of Ukraine has sparked a coordinated wave of sanctions from the US and members of the European Union. This may be the most comprehensive set of sanctions that Moscow has seen, but it is certainly not the first. In this episode, Bob & Ben speak with Kristy Ironside, who specializes in the history of the Russian & Soviet economy, for a conversation about the long history of western sanctions against Russia, the Ruble's tenuous position in the global economy, and how Russia's long-term economic isolation has, and may continue to, impact people around the world. Although things remain uncertain, it is our hope that these sanctions help to bring an end to the tragedy that Vladimir Putin has unleashed against the people of Ukraine.
Dr. Kristy Ironside is Assistant Professor of Russian, Soviet & International History at McGill University in Montreal, Canada and the author of A Full-Value Ruble: The Promise of Prosperity in the Postwar Soviet Union, 1945-1964 (Harvard University Press, 2021). You can follow her on twitter at @Kristy_Ironside.
This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Bob Crawford. |
| 0:05.8 | I'm Ben Sawyer. |
| 0:07.0 | And this is the road to now. |
| 0:09.0 | Ben, you have a PhD in Russian history. |
| 0:15.0 | Yes, I do. |
| 0:17.0 | You are the man of the hour as far as as information goes for our circle of friends. |
| 0:25.5 | And you have a lot of friends who know a lot of stuff. |
| 0:29.4 | I do. |
| 0:30.7 | And I also have a lot of friends who know a lot of stuff, but very few friends who are as excited |
| 0:37.3 | about the economies of the former Soviet Union |
| 0:40.9 | as I am. And so I am very delighted today to introduce my old friend from the Moscow Days, |
| 0:48.3 | an expert in Russian economic and financial history. Dr. Christie Ironside, welcome to the roads now. |
| 0:56.1 | Thank you so much for reminding me. It's great to be here. |
| 0:59.2 | It's great to have you here. I'll say that I feel like the old days having beers at the, |
| 1:05.8 | what was the place we always went? The... Khrushka. |
| 1:16.5 | Khrushka, which was kind of like a, I don't know, like a cafeteria that served cheap beer. |
| 1:17.8 | And it was right near the metro. |
| 1:24.3 | And we'd work like 10 hours days in the archives, sometimes hit two archives and then have to just go and talk about what we found. |
| 1:31.1 | And now here we are on the, like a decade meeting under some unfortunate circumstances because we're here to discuss what everybody's talking about, |
| 1:38.5 | what's happening in Ukraine in particular, the sanctions and how they might affect the economy. |
| 1:45.0 | Christy, I'm going to tee you up here. |
| 1:47.0 | This is not the first time that people have put sanctions on Russia, right? |
... |
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