Image Credit: Nikolai TrishinTASS via Getty Images 
Footage from Russia shows long lines forming at banks and ATMs amid reports that the U.S. and EU have agreed impose “restrictive measures” on Russian banks following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Several video clips from Moscow and elsewhere in Russia show panicked citizens making a run on banks and ATMs to withdraw their cash ahead of these unprecedented international financial sanctions.
BREAKING: Bank run in #Russia started.
Be your own bank before things escalate. #Bitcoin is insurance against state failure. pic.twitter.com/juVFZSzTb1
— Carl ₿ MENGER
(@CarlBMenger) February 27, 2022
If you have #Bitcoin and #Crypto you don’t have to wait in long bank run lines like what is happening in Russia.
People are starting to realize the HUGE benefits of global, decentralized, permission-less money. pic.twitter.com/A8oZeXflge
— CryptoCurrency News (@CryptoBoomNews) February 27, 2022
The Moscow bank run: a queue for a Tinkoff ATM in the Liga shopping center in Khimki. There are about 70 people in line. Eyewitnesses say the money in the ATM runs out within 40 minutes. @bazabazon pic.twitter.com/MTMkEiCRHJ
— Jason Corcoran (@jason_corcoran) February 27, 2022
The US and EU issued a joint statement Saturday announcing “restrictive measures that will prevent the Russian Central Bank from deploying its international reserves in ways that undermine the impact of our sanctions.”
EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen further broke down how the EU would cut off the Central Bank of Russia and other “selected Russian banks” from the SWIFT global payment system to to “strengthen our response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and cripple Putin’s ability to finance his war machine.”
“This will ensure that these banks are disconnected from the international financial system and harm their ability to operate globally,” she said.
In coordination with
I will now propose new measures to EU leaders to strengthen our response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and cripple Putin’s ability to finance his war machine. https://t.co/iU2waDzo9s
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) February 26, 2022
A Biden official praised the move as an “unprecedented act of global sanctions coordination.”
“We are collectively planning to impose measures to ensure Russia cannot use its central bank reserves to support its currency, and thereby undermine the impact of our sanctions,” the official said.
“This will show that Russia’s supposed sanctions-proofing of its economy is a myth. The $600 billion-plus war chest of Russia’s foreign reserves is only powerful if Putin can use it, and without being able to buy the ruble from Western financial institutions, for example, Putin’s central bank will lose the ability to offset the impact of our sanctions.”
Putin stressed last month that any sanctions imposed on Russia would effectively be an “act of war.”
NEW WORLD WAR MAXIMUM ALERT! Putin Declares Any Sanctions are an ‘Act of War’