You can’t get Russian Vodka in Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba, and British Columbia, Canada (CTV News). Putin won’t notice.

Russians are protesting the invasion of Ukraine, across Russia, by the thousands (NY Times). Putin won’t care. There may be too many to put in jail – and anyway, they already are inside the gulag, they are already in jail, a jail called the Russian Federation.

However,

European soccer’s governing body voted on Friday 2/25/22 to move this season’s Champions League final, the showcase game on the continent’s sporting calendar, to Paris as punishment for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (NY Times). Putin won’t like it, but he can host his own soccer showcase and pump drugs into the arms of the team he wants to win – just like in the Olympics.

The game, on May 28, had been scheduled to be played in St. Petersburg, in a stadium built for 2018 World Cup and financed by the Russian energy giant Gazprom, a major sponsor of the governing body, UEFA. It will take place instead at the Stade de France, in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis. It will be the first time France has hosted the final since 2006.

This may bother Putin and his cronies. But it will not hurt them.

On the other hand,

First Germany stopped Nordstream 2 (Reuters).

Then Colorado’s pension fund announced that it will divest millions from a Russian bank, and Gov. Jared Polis says state will explore further divestment opportunities (Denver Post).

Similarly, Denmark’s AkademikerPension to divest Russian Investments. The pension fund also will exclude Russian investments from its portfolio going forward (Private Equity News).

And Canada’s Caisse de Depot is selling its Russian holdings (click Pensions & Investments Online).

This will hurt them!

Meanwhile, Russia’s richest 22 billionaires have lost $39 billion in one day after the invasion of Ukraine (click here).

(Who are the Oligarchs? Start here on CNBC.)

So despite Trump (N Y Times, here), Pompeo (Kansas City Star, here), and Carlson (described in The Guardian, Vanity Fair, and mocked on various late night news /comedy shows) praising Putin, he and the oligarchs may have to stop bankrolling Trump, the GOP, and White Supremacists.

Before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, ex-Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, who would be Senator (or King) praised Putin and criticized Biden in Ukraine crisis (Kansas City Star). Pompeo has lauded the Russian strongman over the past month as a “talented,” “savvy,” “capable statesman,” offering his praise during a slew of interviews after his political action committee spent $30,000 on improving his performance in media appearances. “He is a very talented statesman. He has lots of gifts,” Pompeo told Fox News in January. “He was a KGB agent, for goodness sakes. He knows how to use power. We should respect that.” Putin loved it.

And Khazakstan, the former Soviet Republic, has reportedly denied a request for its troops to join Russian forces in their invasion of Ukraine (Kansas City Star). The former Soviet republic also said it is not recognizing the Russia-created breakaway republics, the Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic, NBC News reported Friday, citing officials. This will annoy Putin.

On Saturday, Feb 26, US, Canada, UK, and EU announced that some Russian banks will be disconnected from the SWIFT, here, and here., SWIFT, Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, is the global financial messaging system based in Brussels. A joint statement on Saturday said the move was intended to “ensure that this war is a strategic failure for Putin.” Putin’s $600 Billion war chest is useless if he can’t get to it. The idiot should have kept it in Rubles in Russia, not transformed it into US Dollars or Euros and locked it up in Swiss Banks or real estate.

If they get hit hard enough they may develop they will want to do to Putin what Meyer Lanky and Lucky Luciano or Bugsy’s girlfriend Virginia Hill’s brother allegedly did to Ben “Bugsy” Siegel (The Mob Museum).