The political cost of invading Ukraine grows...

in Moscow, Brussels, and Zurich

Divorce sucks. Actually separation is worse. People choose sides early.

Do you have friends, real friends? You find out who your friends quickly, when the choice is between you and your spouse.

Then, there is your social and casual circle. It can be tough if people make you feel unwelcome at the club, favorite restaurants, the office, your kid’s school, and even in your own neighborhood. Throw in an affair and those lines get even starker.

That’s President Putin’s problem. Eventually, former President Donald Trump’s too. Trump, well before he was elected in 2016, has been in the back pocket of Putin. Much of that relationship is financial and it explains, rather easily, why Trump has always been so secretive about his finances. Being friends with the loathed adulterous spouse wins one no points.

Putin has now, post invasion of Ukraine, been cut off from the world. As this is being written, Switzerland, after over two centuries of absolute neutrality, is about to cut Russia off at its ankles. The knee level happened when the ruble fell to a penny and interest rates went to 20%.

With Hitler, it was “what are you going to do?”. Now, it’s clearly a case of “never again”.

It’s no secret that the Russian bank system as far back as the time of the Tsars has been unrealiable and only nominally stable. The Soviet system relied on “hard currency”, i.e Western money, to stay afloat so often that it’s a wonder the U.S.S.R. lasted 70 years and change. With the economic sanctions the internationally community has today, the Soviet Union could have been run out of business in a couple of months.

The lack of money, friends, and even a friendly ear may be Putin’s undoing. But chances are Putin decided his ego and mistress, Ukraine, were worth it. But in this case, his mistress is being beaten into submission.