How commercial and financial pressure on Russia widened by 4 March 2022
An analysis of three economic measures against Russia and Belarus announced in the opening days of March 2022.
What did economic pressure on Russia look like by 4 March 2022? It had begun to reach advertising, development lending and the supply of cash.
On 4 March 2022, Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, stopped all sales of advertisements in Russia. It followed similar moves by Twitter and Snap Inc. Russian regulators had demanded that the company stop showing what they called false political information about Ukraine, which they claimed was misinforming the Russian public.
Institutions step in
Two days earlier, on 2 March 2022, the World Bank suspended all of its programmes in Russia and Belarus in response to the invasion of Ukraine. The step covered both countries, not only Russia.
On the same date, the European Union announced that it would suspend deliveries of euro banknotes to Russia from 12 March. Exemptions were set for private persons and their family members in Russia, and for diplomatic missions with legal immunity.
What the measures show
The three steps came from different actors: a private technology company, a multilateral lender and a bloc of states. Each targeted a different channel: commercial advertising, programme financing and physical currency. The advertising decision was tied to a dispute with Russian regulators over content about Ukraine, while the World Bank and EU measures were responses to the invasion.
The banknote measure was drawn narrowly, with exemptions for individuals and for diplomatic missions. Taken together, the announcements between 2 and 4 March 2022 show economic isolation being built up through several separate decisions rather than a single act.
