steps, many of them unprecedented, to penalize putin for the invasion of ukraine. switzerland announced a freeze on russian financial assets, a notable departure from its typical neutrality. and germany stated that it would increase the country s defense spending and green light arms deliveries to ukraine. this weekend s stunning sights, all across the world, as people are standing in solidarity with the people of ukraine. despite threats of arrest, many russians are protesting in their country their own leader. in berlin, approximately 100,000 people took to the streets. london and new york city saw thousands standing with the ukrainian people and in opposition to vladimir putin. even in south africa and australia, people are voicing their support for ukraine. that is where we start this hour. joining us now, igor, a former advisor to ukrainian president
stand with sanctions against russia and the effects they are already having on its economy. the united states, along with its allies around the world, uk, the eu, canada, japan even switzerland, i said it before, neutral switzerland. they are putting maximum economic pressure on russia. and the financial structure, they are once cutting off some of the biggest russian banks from the u.s. financial system and from swift, the international messaging system that connects thousands of institutions around the world. their actions also specifically targeting companies of industries. the sanctions also go after powerful individuals including vladimir putin himself. in a number of influential oligarchs. in today, the u.s. government is going even further. this is a big one. freezing hundreds of millions of dollars that you know who it belongs to, the russian central bank. without that money, it s going to be a whole lot harder to prop up the russian economy in the pain it is already. in the ru
putin sending a low level cultural delegation, so there is widespread skepticism of any concrete discussions to end the conflict. global condemnation of russia is spreading with historically neutral switzerland joining europe s anti-russian sanctions and israel not sending weapons to ukraine, but israel at least joining a u.n. resolution, a general assembly resolution condemning ukraine. the u.n. general assembly is voting in a rare emergency session on a resolution condemning russia, despite objections from moscow. russia is suffering severe financial consequences from president putin s actions with their stock market shut down for the rest of the week, the russian ruble crashing to an all time low, interest rates in russia skyrocketing to 20% and new u.s. sanctions on russia s central bank ramped up again today. all the financial pressure and military setbacks have put the global spotlight on putin as the world wonders what will he do in
historic neutrality like switzerland, it illustration what put and has on his hands right now. tomorrow at noon tomorrow, speaker of the house nancy pelosi. but first much more on the special extended edition of andrea mitchell reports so stay with us. allies taking a stand at a rare emergency session of the u.n. general assembly and the ambassador from a key baltic state. plus more than half a million refugee flee ukraine and so many others are just desperate to find a way out. stay with us. find a way out stay with us on our jackets? -denied. -can you imagine?
i think that s insightful telling you the extent to which what is happening on the ground, the way that the russians pursuing this is dictated by president putin. i spoke to a former kremlin official and said the russians underestimated the ukrainian reaction. they also he said underestimated president zelenskyy and the reaction of the west and that gets us to the question of the sanctions. i do think that the kremlin is pretty stunned by the wave of sanctions. switzerland, neutral switzerland, imposed sanctions. if a russian oligarch isn t confident of the money in the swiss bank he is in trouble so this new iron curtain that is being put up between russia and the west i think it s surprising