Over the past week, the western world has taken political and economic steps that would have been considered preposterous a month ago.  The US, the EU, the UK and other allies have acted with unity, scale and ferocity to lock Russia out of the economic world in an unprecedented manner. Never before has a country so integrated into the global banking system been frozen out to this extent.  Russia’s finance and military-industrial sectors, as well as individuals and sporting events, have all been targeted, as the West has piled opprobrium in retaliation for Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine – tough…