The international financial pressure on Moscow is being highlighted by the fact that Norway's oil fund will dump its Russian investments.
According to a statement from the Norwegian government on Sunday evening, the central bank of Norway has been instructed to immediately freeze all new investments in Russia and to begin to liquidate its Russian holdings.
The attack on Ukraine by Russia has challenged Europe's security in a way that has not been seen before.
The fund held over $3 billion in shares in the country at the end of the year. That is 0.2 per cent of the total assets under management.
The NBIM said in a statement to the Financial Times that they will not buy or sell shares in Russia because of the decisions made by the Norwegian government.
The chief executive of the state fund, a former hedge fund manager, said earlier this week that it was a bad idea to sell out from Russia.
He told a local newspaper that selling out of a market is not black-or-white.
Increasing pressure on the government to act more forcefully in response to the Ukrainian invasion pushed the government to act.
The Norwegian finance minister said that it was necessary to pull the fund out of Russia.
The government said it would give up to two billion kroner for humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the Red Cross and the UN Humanitarian Land Fund have received the most humanitarian aid from Norway.
Russia's acts of war lead to great civilian casualties, destroy basic infrastructure and drive people into exile. We are increasing our humanitarian aid because of the Ukraine crisis.
Russia will be isolated financially by hitting the central bank and taking a number of Russian banks out of the Swift payment system, according to Norway. Norwegian airspace will be closed to Russian flights.
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