The imposition of sanctions on Russia is being cited as an excuse for another massive assault on the remaining tatters of the privacy of the people of the entire politically organized world. Officially, we are all urged to acquiesce to public revelations of every conceivable connection we may have to assets of any kind that may be connected to Russian oligarchs, but this is the pretext for a thickening of the gigantic cloud of self-righteous officious smugness that has turned routine banking into the financial equivalent of compulsively frequent colonoscopies. In fact, the Russians have little to do with the insatiable ambition of all governments to intrude into our personal lives in ways that governments have no right to do. No reputable authority can contend that what a bank is required to learn about our financial transactions is required for governments to discharge their basic duties to assure a well-running civil society.
