Guy Faulconbridge

LONDON (Reuters] -Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West Tuesday that he can end exports and trades, his harshest yet response to sanctions imposed by the United States of America and its allies following the Russian invasion in Ukraine.

Putin, Russia’s supreme leader, has signed Tuesday a wide-ranging decree that forbids the export of raw material and products to individuals and entities listed on the sanctions list he directed the government to create within 10 days.

Moscow has the ability to cause chaos on markets by publishing this decree. It could stop exports and end contracts with any entity or person it approves.

It has ten days for the Russian government to create lists of individuals it will not sanction, other than Western politicians.

Putin specifically framed his decree to respond to the “illegal actions” of the United States, its allies and meant that the Russian Federation, Russian citizens and Russian legal entities were deprived of their property rights or restricted.

It provides for “retaliatory specific economic measures in conjunction with some unfriendly actions by foreign states and international organisations”.

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2014. The United States and its allies responded by imposing the strongest sanctions yet in American history against Russia and Moscow’s business leaders. Putin’s actions are regarded as an act of economic warfare.

Russia is one of the largest producers of natural resource resources in the world. The West has attempted to isolate Russia economically, causing the global economy unprecedented turmoil with rising prices and warnings about food shortages.

‘ECONOMIC WAR’

Putin is 69 years old and has been warning Moscow that Moscow will not be silent. But, up to Tuesday, Russia’s most difficult economic response was to cut gas supplies from Poland and Bulgaria and to demand new payments for European buyers.

Tuesday’s decree bans products and raw materials from being exported to Kremlin sanctioned entities. The decree forbids all transactions with any of these persons or entities, regardless of whether they are currently covered under contracts.

Putin gave the government the task of preparing the sanctions list for foreign companies and individuals, along with defining additional criteria to restrict certain transactions.

Tatiana Stanovaya said, “This is the framework decree.” Tatiana Stanovaya was a Carnegie Moscow Center scholar and co-founder of R.Politik’s political analysis firm.

Now, all specific lists must be created by the government. We need to be patient.

With rising inflation and sanctions imposed by the West on Russia, the US economy, worth $1.8 trillion, has seen its largest contraction since the 1990s.

The Russian state is gaining more control over the economy and a large transfer of Russian assets began. Numerous major Western investors – including energy giants BP and Shell (NYSE:), – have exited, while oligarchs are trying to restructure their businesses.