@Lookout Methods to keep journalists on message, international relations, politics and financial punishments (i.e. sanctions).

from the article linked in original comment.

On Christmas Eve, 2018, New York Times writer Andrew Ross Sorkin published, “How Banks Unwittingly Finance Mass Shootings.”
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By the way, this same Sorkin once suggested he wouldn’t stop at arresting Edward Snowden, but go after the reporter who broke his story, too. “I would arrest him and now I’d almost arrest Glenn Greenwald, the journalist… he wants to help him get to Ecuador,” he said, on CNBC’s Squawk Box. It’s amazing how selective one can be in one’s authoritarian leanings. After Goldman, Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein appeared to commit perjury in 2011 when he told the Senate, “We didn’t bet against our clients,” Sorkin rushed an apologia into print saying “Mr. Blankfein wasn’t lying,” failing to remind audiences that his Dealbook blog at the Times was sponsored by… Goldman, Sachs.

Sorkin’s Visa piece is suddenly relevant again, after fellow former finance reporter Chrystia Freeland — someone I’ve known since we were both expat journalists in Russia in the nineties — announced last week that her native Canada would be making Sorkin’s vision a reality. Freeland arouses strong feelings among old Russia hands. Before the Yeltsin era collapsed, she had consistent, remarkable access to gangster-oligarchs like Boris Berezovsky, who appeared in her Financial Times articles described as aw-shucks humans just doing their best to make sure “big capital” maintained its “necessary role” in Russia’s political life. “Berezovsky was one of several financiers who came together in a last-ditch attempt to keep the Communists out of the Kremlin” was typical Freeland fare in, say, 1998.
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Years later, she is somehow Canada’s Finance Minister, and what another friend from our Russia days laughingly describes as “the Nurse Ratched of the New World Order.”

Freeland appears to have a bit of a history with Russia and Ukraine.

Canada brings in stronger sanctions after Russia strikes Ukraine Feb 24, 2022 CFJC Today

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Putin’s attack was a test of the post-Second World War order that Canada helped to build to restore peace to the world.

“It could be this is an extremely serious challenge to that order. And if Russia succeeds, then that order will be breached. And we can’t let that happen,” said Freeland, who is of Ukrainian descent and has been banned by Putin from travelling to Russia because she wrote critically about him in her pre-political career as a journalist.
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The Ukrainian Canadian Congress, which represents 1.3 million Canadians of Ukrainian descent, echoed that call for Russia to be tossed from the banking system as part of “devastating” economic sanctions.

“Ukraine needs weapons with which to defend itself right now,” UCC executive director Ihor Michalchyshyn added in a statement. “Most importantly they need anti-air systems like stinger missiles and other air defence and naval defence systems.”

He also warned against Canada and its allies not taking a strong enough stance in its response to Russia, saying: “In the 1930s, the world was slow to recognize the danger that Adolf Hitler posed to our civilization. We cannot make that same mistake again with Putin.”

Most, but not all, bank accounts have been reopened. So that's good news.

Here's an interesting piece on Chrystia Freeland's background
She's the one that froze accounts with apparent great delight...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs4I_cXbuNA]
40 sec

Matt has a piece about the power grab...
When Boring People Turn Dangerous: Canada's Insane Power Grab
The Canadian government's decision to freeze bank accounts in the trucker protests is a mad leap toward bureaucratic dystopia
... fellow former finance reporter Chrystia Freeland — someone I’ve known since we were both expat journalists in Russia in the nineties
...Years later, she is somehow Canada’s Finance Minister, and what another friend from our Russia days laughingly describes as “the Nurse Ratched of the New World Order.” At the end of last week, Minister Freeland explained that in expanding its Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) program, her government was “directing Canadian financial institutions to review their relationships with anyone involved in the illegal blockades.”

Ottawa Aftermath - Injunctions to Frozen Bank Accounts - Tom Marazzo Interview