BREAKING: US locks down Russian central bank, sovereign fund assets. Russia is in danger of becoming a pariah state like North Korea. That’s bad for Russia, though of course we lose leverage in those circumstances, too. But will the oligarchs and generals let Putin turn Russia into North Korea?

Related: Putin finds himself isolated, out of touch as invasion sputters. “Putin’s nuclear threat came as much of the world declared him an international pariah. He is among a small number of leaders to be hit by personal sanctions. That club includes Mr. al-Assad of Syria, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. Now evidence is mounting that even some allies may be moving away from him. Turkey is weighing a request from Ukraine to block Russian warships from entering the Black Sea through a strategic chokepoint. Ibrahim Kalin, a spokesman and top aide to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, tweeted Sunday that his country would ‘continue our efforts to help the people of Ukraine and end bloodshed in this unjust and unlawful war.’ Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic and ally of Russia, has sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine.”

Also: The ruble crashes, the stock market closes, and Russia’s economy staggers. “As the day began, Russia’s currency lost as much as a quarter of its value within hours. Scrambling to stem the decline, the Russian Central Bank more than doubled its key interest rate, banned foreigners from selling Russian securities and ordered exporters to convert into rubles most of their foreign-currency revenues. It closed the Moscow stock exchange for the day because of the ‘developing situation.'”

UPDATE: Speculation: Everyone is thinking about how this affects China and Taiwan. But what if Putin’s show of weakness encourages China to seize land in Siberia? As a pariah state, Russia will attract less sympathy (well, none counts as “less,” right?) and what’s Putin going to do about it?