President Vladimir Putin has opened a new front against his own citizens. His latest weapon is not artillery or propaganda, but something more subtle and suffocating: control over every dollar, every euro, every door still leading to the outside world. According to sources cited by Interfax, the new proposal from Russia’s Finance Ministry would hand the president sweeping power to ban or restrict any foreign currency transactions by Russian residents. It will also grant Putin the authority to impose restrictions on opening and maintaining accounts, as well as make other decisions related to currency regulation.
For many older Russians, it would carry an unmistakable echo of the Soviet past, when those caught trading foreign
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