Stocks sink and commodity prices soar as sanctions against Putin bite

MARKETS Oscar Williams-Grut

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THE price of everything from metals and gas to wheat jumped today as tough sanctions on Russia pushed the country into financial crisis and left the City racing to parse the impact.

Western governments radically stepped up sanctions on Russia over the weekend, including banning some of the country’s leading banks from the international SWIFT payment network and freezing central bank reserves held overseas.

The interventions effectively made doing business with Russia almost impossible. RBC said the moves would “cripple international transactions.”