“Russia’s plan to apply counter-sanctions will include a welcome ban of FATCA compliance industry”

From Bloomberg News, Russia Eyes Banning U.S. Chicken And Some European Fruit. But that is not all. They plan to ban the FATCA compliance industry as well:

In a separate development, Russia’s lower house of parliament, or Duma, may consider legislation to target companies in nations that impose sanctions against Russian citizens or businesses, according to Russian lawmaker Evgeny Fedorov.
The proposal would bar audit and consulting firms from nations defined as “country-aggressor” from working in Russia. If enacted, the law would cover Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst & Young LLP, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Boston Consulting Group Inc. and McKinsey & Co., Fedorov said in a telephone interview today.

Well, it’s one thing to shut down consulting firms’ operations in Russia or anywhere else (China is considering the same thing — largely for security reasons) and see who gets fired. But more important is not following their “advice,” which does not benefit their clients, IMHO. The following is aimed at Russia’s specific circumstances but broad brush is applicable to other countries as well:
http://en.ria.ru/authors/20140725/191441744/Moscow-Must-Close-a-Yawning-Gap-in-Its-Financial-Armor-.html
Russia is recognizing that the U.S. government uses its citizens abroad and it’s companies to damage the interests of the host country. Eventually, Obama will have to pass sanctions against other countries who trade with Russia too.

Probably this is one of the reasons why the HKD’s been banging against the top of its peg range so much recently:
Russian groups convert cash reserves
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/418b5f98-18c9-11e4-80da-00144feabdc0.html

Large Russian companies are moving some of their cash holdings to Asian banks as the latest sanctions from the US and the EU have raised fears that Russia could eventually be completely shut out of US dollar funding markets … Megafon said it had decided to move 40 per cent of its cash into Hong Kong dollars and to Chinese banks because Hong Kong’s currency was “an effective proxy for the US dollar even in times of market disturbances” and because having Hong Kong dollars “at hand” in a Chinese bank made settlements easier with Huawei, the telecom equipment provider that won a large contract from the company last month.
Russian executives and bankers said Chinese banks were most likely to benefit from heightened fears about a complete dollar transaction ban because they were regarded as the least likely to comply with western sanctions.