Can the West Stop Russia by Strangling its Economy?
b'There\\u2019s the Russia-Ukraine war that\\u2019s easy to follow in the news right now. We can watch Russian bombs falling on Ukraine, see Russian tanks smoking on the side of the road, hear from Ukrainian resistance fighters livestreaming their desperate defense.\\n\\nBut there\\u2019s another theater to this war that\\u2019s harder to see, but may well decide the outcome: the economic war that West is waging on Russia. Europe and the United States initially responded with a limited set of sanctions but then expanded them into a counterattack capable of crushing the Russian economy. Vladimir Putin, for one, understands the danger: As the force of the West\\u2019s measures multiplied, he readied his nuclear forces in a bid to warn Europe and the United States off. This is terrifying territory.\\n\\nSo I asked Adam Tooze \\u2014 a brilliant economic historian, the director of the European Institute at Columbia, and the author of the indispensable \\u201cChartbook\\u201d newsletter \\u2014 to explain how the war in the financial markets is shaping the war in streets of Ukraine. What he gave me was a whole new way to see how Putin had readied his country for conflict, the leverage that Russia\\u2019s energy exports gave it, how the dreams of the globalizers had cracked, and what the West both was and wasn\\u2019t doing in response.\\n\\nBut this is two conversations, not one. On Friday, Tooze and I recorded just as the war began. That was a conversation about the economics of the war as both Russia and the West understood it when the bombing began. But on Monday, we spoke again, because so much had changed. Rather than splice the two discussions into an artificial omniscience, I\\u2019ve linked them, because I think they reveal more in sequence: They show how fast this war is reshaping the politics around it, how quickly the escalation is coming, how rapidly the plans are crumbling.\\n\\nSo we discuss the sanctions that the West has deployed against Russia, how Europe\\u2019s dependence on Russian energy exports undermined the West\\u2019s response, what Putin understood about the dark side of economic interdependence, how Ukraine\\u2019s remarkable resistance \\u2014 and the remarkable leadership of its president, Volodymyr Zelensky \\u2014 reshaped the politics and policies in the West, how this war could alter the geopolitical calculus of China and Taiwan, the new economic order that is emerging, and more.\\n\\nMentioned:\\n\\n\\u201cPutin\\u2019s Challenge to Western hegemony - the 2022 edition\\u201d by Adam Tooze (Chartbook)\\n\\n\\u201cThe economic consequences of the war in Ukraine\\u201d (The Economist)\\n\\nBook Recommendations:\\n\\nThe Economic Weapon by Nicholas Mulder\\n\\nThe End of the End of History by Alex Hochuli, George Hoare and Philip Cunliffe\\n\\nThe Future of Money by Eswar S. Prasad\\n\\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\\n\\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of \\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.\\n\\n\\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d is produced by Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld and Rog\\xe9 Karma; fact-checking by Michelle Harris; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld; audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Our executive producer is Irene Noguchi. Special thanks to Kristin Lin and Kristina Samulewski.'