As Moscow intensifies its assault on Ukraine, the United States and its Western allies have responded to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression by waging a financial war and imposing a barrage of sanctions designed to cripple Russia’s economy. The measures, which have increased in severity in the days since the Russian invasion, caused the ruble to reach its lowest level ever against the dollar and have wrought havoc on Russia’s financial markets and largest banks. With the announcement that the US and its European allies are planning to expel selected Russian banks from the global financial messaging service SWIFT, the Russian economy is in increasing peril.

Marshall Billingslea joined Marc and Dany to discuss the US and the West’s response to Russia’s aggression on Ukraine, the sanctions campaign against the Russian economy, and what the US needs to do to ensure severe financial and military pain for Moscow.

Marshall S. Billingslea is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute, focusing on illicit finance and arms control with the Kleptocracy Initiative. Prior to joining Hudson Institute, Mr. Billingslea was the special presidential envoy for arms control at the US Department of State, holding the rank of ambassador. Before joining the State Department, Mr. Billingslea served as the assistant secretary for terrorist financing at the US Department of the Treasury, and in 2018, he was selected as president of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)—the global anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing body—and co-chaired the global Counter-ISIS Finance.

Download the transcript here.