Russian economist: The West’s perception of the effectiveness of sanctions is naive

According to RCO News Agency, prominent Russian economist Vladislav Inozmtsev in an interview with “Euro News” described Western sanctions against Russia as ineffective and said that these sanctions are a double-edged sword that the West also suffers from.

According to Euronews, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, a wave of Western sanctions has been imposed with the aim of crippling the Russian economy and the progress made by the president of this country, Vladimir Putin. Although the beginning of severe Western sanctions against Moscow dates back to 2014 and Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the sanctions imposed from 2022 are far more extensive and include a wide range of government institutions, businesses and individuals.

According to Inuzmetsov, Western sanctions against Russia are mocked in Moscow and a satirical script has just been written in which US President Joe Biden despairs that the sanctions have not yet brought Russia down and goes on a secret trip to find out the secret. Russia’s economic stability goes to Moscow!

Ineffective and arbitrary sanctions

Acknowledging that the sanctions have driven foreign investors and companies out of Russia, this prominent economist states that this has not had a severe impact on the Russian economy overall, as domestic markets have replaced them and the government has controlled the problems by injecting huge budgets. is On the other hand, Western sanctions have not destroyed Russian military industries and have not mobilized Russian citizens under an anti-war trend. In addition, Inuzmetsov emphasizes that sanctions are a double-edged sword.

For example, the Russian economist points out that the embargo on Russian gas by Europe caused a sharp increase in gas prices and forced European governments to allocate subsidies. In contrast, Russia’s gas revenues increased by $78 billion in the year the war began due to these price increases.

In another example, he pointed to the fact that the seizure of Russian bank assets in Western countries – which Europe failed to use to support Ukraine – resulted in the seizure of Western investors’ assets in Russia.

Inuzmetsov also emphasizes that Western sanctions are not consistent and in many cases are difficult to justify. For example, Inuzmetsov says: “I cannot understand why only 48 of 125 Russian billionaires are under sanctions; Or why 60 Russian banks are under sanctions, while almost 260 other banks are not.”

Lawlessness in applying naive sanctions

The Russian economist says that sanctions are effective when the target country suffers more than the sanctioning country, but now the number of billionaires based in Russia has reached an all-time high, as they see the seizure of Russian state assets in Western countries. removed from the West, returned to Russia and became Putin’s supporters.

On the other hand, he criticized the pressure of Ukraine’s allies on third countries to embargo Russia and said that the Western authorities have no right to limit or prohibit the sale of Russian oil to third countries such as India, because this is a sovereign relationship between third countries and to Westerners. It is not related. However, he emphasized that all these efforts to force third countries to embargo Russia have failed and Russia’s oil revenues have increased.

In this interview, Inuzmetsov also pointed to numerous cases of arbitrary sanctions against Russian people and said that the Kremlin will finally find a way to compensate for the damages caused to the rich in Russia, but the sanctions will cause irreparable damage to the Western legal system.

“In my view, sanctions remain a mechanism of extra-legal pressure that is increasingly sidelining legal institutions and leading to the erosion and weakening of the rule of law,” says Inuzmetsov.

Punishing Russia’s wealthy would not benefit the West, he said, pointing out that Westerners think that with a little more pressure, Russian oligarchs will rebel against the Kremlin. “Honestly, I can’t imagine a more naive idea,” he said.

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