Putin’s defiance will have wide impact

Russia sidelining itself from the global economy will usher in a new era, writes Giles Merritt

Russia’s intervention in Ukraine and the ensuing Crimea crisis is wrongly seen as the start of Cold War II.

But, while the fallout from Russian president Vladimir Putin’s defiance of international law and public opinion will be very different from that of the Soviet Union’s long campaign to defeat capitalism, the geopolitical ripple effects are certain to be just as far-reaching, if not more so.