Moscow Closes the Monetary Iron Curtain

Officially, it is for financial stability. In reality, it is nothing but obedience and deprivation of freedom. The stench of the Soviet past proves pestilential.

Towards a Total Ban on Foreign Currencies

A battery of measures “proposed” by the Russian Minister of Finance will prohibit any transaction denominated in foreign currency for residents of the country. From now on, the President has full authority to decree monetary regulation and to impose restrictions on the opening, or even the maintenance, of a bank account. The Kremlin will be empowered to make illegal any unauthorized exchange operation in dollars or euros, which in any case will require a special permit from the Presidency to be transferred abroad.

A Methodical Strategy of Isolation

This marks yet another step in the gradual isolation—both economic and political—of its citizens, methodically organized by Putin, who has progressively established strict control over capital flows, seized and nationalized private assets, branded as “foreign agents” any organizations not loyal to him, and blocked access to popular messaging services. Putin is opening a new front—this time not with weapons, but with instruments that will suffocate his population. The economic—and even physical—prison now awaits Russians who still keep a few foreign banknotes under their mattresses, having seen one by one every door and every window to the outside world shut before them.

The Specter of the Stalinist Model

A sad déjà vu, in truth—and an outdated one—for Stalin’s USSR, which at the time monopolized every Deutsche Mark, franc, and dollar, deemed any foreign exchange transaction highly subversive. “Enemies of the people,” those unlucky enough to be caught with foreign currencies were deported to the Gulag, sometimes executed. This state monopoly, forcing citizens to have only the ruble as their horizon, was exercised in the Soviet Union with total paranoia. A tiny elite decided who would be allowed to touch dollars, who could travel, who would vanish into the camps. The ruble was proof of loyalty, and foreign currencies an infallible sign of treason, in a context where money was as important as ideology—since foreign cash symbolized contagion.

An Economy Under Surveillance

In doing so, the USSR strengthened its economic isolation, broke the momentum of its trade, undermined innovation, accelerated stagnation, encouraged the black market, and ruined its currency. The surveillance of citizens led to economic catastrophe, as businesses could plan or foresee nothing, and households faced relentless inflation due to the scarcity of imports. These latest Putin measures carry essentially the same brutality as those of his predecessor, for the Kremlin has revived an era in which economic control was the preferred instrument to secure political obedience.

The Final Message: Loyalty Above All

The message sent to Russians is simple: your savings no longer belong to you. The one sent to the markets is equally clear: loyalty takes precedence over solvency.