Asia's commercial heft helps keep Russia's war economy going

FOLLOWING VLADIMIR PUTIN'S invasion of Ukraine two years ago, more than three dozen countries, led by the West, slapped economic sanctions on Russia. They were unprecedented in their scope for a target of its size, covering energy and other commodities, finance, technology, travel, shipping and more. Their aim was to raise the cost to Russia of continuing the war. The reorganisation of trade that has followed highlights the relentless eastward shift in the world's economic centre of gravity. Asia accounts for two-fifths of the world's GDP. Its ever-increasing commercial pull is diverting much trade that Russia previously conducted with the…