Then Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine and in response America did something that changed the whole equation. In retaliation to Putin’s aggression, the Federal Reserve froze hundreds of billions of dollars that belonged to Russia’s central bank but kept within the dollar-payment circuit that the US controls fully. It was the first time in capitalist history that a major central bank’s money had been, effectively, confiscated by another central bank.[10] Even during the Crimean War of the 1850s, as Russian and British soldiers were slaughtering each other, the Bank of England continued to honour
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