Quote Originally Posted by xerx View Post
Are you sure? I remember Biden talking about "turning the Rouble to rubble". Daleep Singh, one of Biden's top advisers, talked about piercing Putin's "fortress economy". My impression was that the White House really was expecting sanctions to halt Russia's economy.
Ultimately, when you accept foreign currency (or any currency, for that matter), you are making a calculation that you will be able to buy (exchange that currency for) something of value from that country in the future.

If you think that the country is not going to be able to produce anything of value, you first ask for more currency (which means that you think that the future value of their goods and services will be less than it is today), or you refuse to take their currency altogether.

If the world weans itself from gas and oil (and it had better do this), what items of value will you be able to buy from Russia, that you can't get cheaper/better from someone else?