VTB - among Russia's largest banks - has signed a deal with Bank of China to pay each other in domestic currencies, bypassing the need for US Dollars for "investment banking, inter-bank lending, trade finance and capital-markets transactions."

In the end sanctions are unlikely to be much more than symbolic, business continues as usual, certainly between Europe and Russia. That means sanctions for US firms lose value, and purpose.

You can't teach an old dog new tricks. At least that is the impression one gets when considering the credit exposure of the two large Austrian Banks still active in the Ukraine (a third one, Erste Bank, wisely shut up shop in Kiev in late 2012).