Putin Pays Price for Sanctions as Government Bond Sales Scrapped

The trail of destruction left by U.S. sanctions against Russia’s most influential oligarchs spread to President Vladimir Putin’s government as surging borrowing costs forced the Finance Ministry and the biggest state bank to pull bond sales.

It’s the first debt auction Russia abandoned since cancellations in 2014 and 2015, when Putin’s annexation of Crimea soured relations with the U.S. and European Union. Growing panic over how far America will go at blacklisting wealthy Russians and their businesses sent the ruble and bonds tumbling.