In conversation with Western experts as part of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi on September 11, Putin remarked that any effort to push Ukraine toward NATO membership would result in severe countermeasures.59 Meanwhile, $25 billion in foreign capital fled Russia. But that was no cause for panic. This was not 1998. Moscow had ample reserves to deal with such a minor market mood swing. It was America, not Russia, whose financial system looked to be imploding.
