As Russia eyes moving troops further into Ukraine, Western leaders are readying economic sanctions to punish Vladimir Putin for his aggression.

Those sanctions will be separate and far more severe than the ones President Biden introduced yesterday. US lawmakers have pledged to unleash the “mother of all sanctions” in the event of a Russian invasion, and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson suggested on Sunday that the sanctions will include cutting off Russian companies from using US dollars and British pounds, hitting them “very, very hard.”

But while the West is swinging back its battering ram, Putin has had time to build fortifications. For the last several years, he’s been bolstering Russia’s economic defenses in anticipation for this exact moment in a strategy some have dubbed “Fortress Russia.”

Building Fortress Russia

If you want to sanction-proof your economy, the first place to start is padding your foreign exchange reserves, which are stockpiles of foreign currencies held by your central bank. Among its other uses, foreign currency can be deployed to preserve liquidity during an economic crisis.

• Russia’s recently grown its foreign currency reserves to $631 billion, good for fourth place in the world.

It’s also taken a number of other steps to blunt the impact of sanctions:

• Russia’s trimmed expenses to put itself on sturdier financial footing.
• It built its own financial messaging system in case it gets blocked from the one used around the world, called SWIFT.
• It’s developed homegrown industries to reduce imports from the West, most famously Russian Parmesan cheese (keeping an open mind about this).

Also worth noting is that Russia supplies Europe with 40% of its gas imports. So sanctions hitting Russia’s energy sector could boomerang back to hurt the West and destabilize global energy markets.

Big picture: Despite the sanction-proofing campaign, Putin’s Fortress Russia is not impenetrable. Geopolitical experts say that the types of sanctions being prepared, which could block Russia from importing critical tech materials or cut off Russian banks from accessing the US dollar, will be enough to overcome Putin’s defenses and cause significant and immediate damage to the Russian economy.

And investors are preparing for the worst: Russia’s benchmark stock index closed down 11% yesterday for its biggest single-day drop since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.—NF

Truth Social launched. Former President Trump’s Twitter-like social media app shot up to No. 1 on Apple’s App Store in its first day available, but it was a bumpy ride: Users encountered challenges signing up for an account and others were put on a waitlist. Truth Social, led by former Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, is one of several right-learning social apps that have launched in recent years, along with Gettr, Parler, and the more established Rumble.

Emergency powers staying in Canada…for now. Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said the emergency powers he controversially invoked last week are still needed for at least the next few days, because even though protests have disbanded from Ottawa, the “situation is still fragile.” Trudeau said there were signs that truckers might attempt another occupation of the Canadian capital.

The UK scraps Covid rules. Just like Britons have learned to live with rain, they’re about to learn to live with Covid. The UK became the first major Western economy to eliminate government Covid restrictions, such as a requirement to self-isolate once testing positive. Critics, including the British Medical Association, say it’s a premature move that fails to protect the most vulnerable.

Harvard Medical School professor, anthropologist, and global health advocate Dr. Paul Farmer unexpectedly died in his sleep in Rwanda at 62. Farmer, whose mission was to bring high-quality health care to low-income nations, created hospitals in Rwanda and Haiti and co-founded the global nonprofit Partners in Health.

In addition to his nonprofit, Farmer brought livesaving HIV drugs to Haiti, raised millions of dollars for community health care facilities around the world, wrote 12 books, and won a number of awards, including the $1 million Berggruen Prize in 2020 for reshaping our understanding of “what it means to treat health as a human right.”

If Farmer’s CV spurs an existential crisis as you think about your own day job, that wasn’t his intention.

Tracy Kidder, the author of a book about Farmer’s inspirational work, Mountains Beyond Mountains, said Farmer “was the kind of person whose example can irritate you by making you feel you’ve never done anything as important, and yet, in his presence, those kinds of feelings tended to vanish.”

Also…you can learn more about Farmer in the 2017 documentary Bending the Arc.—MM

Take a seat, outdoor dining—the hottest trend in dating is being scammed out of thousands of dollars by a professional fraudster. New data released by the FTC reveals that romance scams reached an all-time high in 2021, up nearly 80% from 2020.

That stat might explain why The Tinder Swindler, Netflix’s latest true-crime doc about a man accused of conning women on Tinder out of $10 million, has led the global Netflix charts since it debuted on February 2.

According to the FTC, people have lost $1.3 billion to romance scams in the last five years—$547 million of which came (or left) in 2021. It’s a steep jump from 2017, when losses from such scams totaled $87 million.

• 56,000 romance scams were reported to the FTC in 2021.
• The median individual loss for people scammed out of crypto by a catphish: $9,770

While the highest individual losses were incurred by people 70 and older (with median individual losses of $9,000) the FTC warned that savvy scammers have had success with every age bracket. Even screentime champions in the 18–29 bracket reported 10x the amount of scams from 2017 to 2021.—MK

Stat: The fire on a cargo ship carrying Porsche, Bentley, and Lamborghini cars could cost Volkswagen Group at least $155 million and other automakers about $246 million, Russell Group estimated yesterday. Efforts to rein in the fire last weekend were complicated by the fact that many of the cars on board are electric vehicles with lithium-ion batteries, which require specialized firefighting equipment.

Quote: “This is a bear that has lost all fear of people.”

A 500-pound black bear known as Hank the Tank has made himself at home in South Lake Tahoe, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Peter Tira, told the NYT. Hank has broken into at least 28 homes and ballooned to his chonky size after snacking on human food and garbage. A typical black bear in the western US weighs 100–300 lbs.

Read: Ikea’s race for the last of Europe’s old-growth forest. (The New Republic)

Inflation doesn’t usually mean good things, but the Motley Fool just found an under-the-radar stock pick that’s double-hedged against it. This one’s beaten inflation by 52+ times (as of 2/14/22), and you can access it for free here.*

Cue the #2 crew . We can’t hold it any longer! It’s time to celebrate the most s-two-pendous day of your lifetime: 2/22/22 Day. Charmin is hosting an extra-fun celebration for this special day where you can turn yourself into a here.*

Putting science to good use: A thread of what historical figures would look like as modern people, made possible by AI.

Take the anxiety out of money: This weekly newsletter features money challenges, free downloadable budget templates, and judgment-free advice to help you stick to your long-term goals.

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Brew Mini: Ease back into the workweek with today’s Mini, which will be slightly easier than Thursday’s. Play it here.

Famous duos

To celebrate Twosday, let’s quiz you on famous duos. We’ll give you the first and last initials of both people in the duo, and you have to give their full names.

1. P.S. and A.G.
2. F.B. and S.G.
3. T.F. and A.P.
4. W.B. and C.M.
5. R.M. and J.C.

…doing your taxes the way that works for you and your needs. This is a stressful time, but that's why we created the Money Scoop Tax Guide. Use it as a beacon and tax season will never be stressful again.

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