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Western sanctions against Russia aim to restrict revenue flows by barring access to Western shipping, banking and insurance…but there’s one more step that could be taken to put the final sanction nail in the Russian coffin.

Russia has been operating in the shadows, using old, unsafe ships and creating state-owned insurance to bypass these sanctions. If Western forces began targeting the “Shadow Fleet” and cutting off access to the Black Sea and Baltic Sea, Russian exports would fall by two-thirds. Should the West choose to do that, we’d be looking at a slew of new issues that would pop up: the global market for oil, wheat, fertilizer, and more would all be disrupted. And then there’s the issue of how ships are registered, which no one is quite prepared to take on.

So, while there could be some more measures taken to ensure the sanctions against the Russians are being optimized, there would be some significant fallout to deal with.

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