Commentary  In the past month, Western nations have allied to wage an economic and technological war against the Russian government and key Russian institutions. These measures included economic sanctions on well-connected Russian oligarchs, Russian banks, and even a U.S. ban of Russian energy imports. Despite Western skepticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s imperialist ambitions, Western nations had previously been comfortable with some level of reliance on the now “pariah” petrol state. Both The New York Times and The Washington Post have referred to these newly implemented measures as “a new iron curtain.” The success of these financial measures has given the Western powers an opportunity to display their financial armory as still maintaining a considerable grasp of the global financial system, despite the emergence of China as an economic powerhouse. In addition to levying an array of financial sanctions, the United States and the European Union have banned key Russian banks from SWIFT. Some European leaders have already described the SWIFT ban on select …