China makes major financial move against Russia
When it comes to the Chinese government, the only certainty is that in any given situation, it’s going make whatever move it opportunistically thinks will allow it to come out ahead. For instance, when Russia first invaded mainland Ukraine days ago, China appeared to be on Putin’s side. But once the whole thing began going poorly for Putin, China publicly came out in favor of Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Now that most of the world’s major players have collectively dropped the financial hammer on Putin and Russia in devastating fashion, China is making moves accordingly. Reuters now says that the Singapore branch of the Bank of China has ceased financing any and all deals that involve Russian companies. This leaves Russia and its oligarchs with yet another dead end when it comes to trying to get their hands on any sort of money.
What’s notable here is that the Bank of China is owned by the government of China. So this isn’t merely yet another bank deciding to freeze out Russia; this is the government of China itself freezing out Russia.
