“Sanctions introduced against Russia in connection with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine inflict real blows on the economy of the aggressor country, but they cannot be considered as a “magic bullet” capable of stopping the war.”, — write: www.ukrinform.ua
Sanctions introduced against Russia in connection with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine inflict real blows on the economy of the aggressor country, but they cannot be considered as a “magic bullet” capable of stopping the war.
“Sanctions have results. But we have to look at this with open eyes: this is not a “magic bullet”, they cannot one day or another put the war on “stand-by”, they should be considered as a component of wider efforts to support Ukraine”, – said the European diplomat.
He specified that the EU focuses its efforts to support Ukraine on three main directions. The first is military support, as it is the answer to immediate challenges. The second direction is political support and efforts to ensure the capacity of the state, financial and macroeconomic assistance, the prospect of membership, etc. Finally, the third direction of EU aid for Ukraine is sanctions against the aggressor country.
“If we talk about the effect of these sanctions, we must be honest with ourselves in answering the question of what we want to achieve. I think there are three main objectives in this: to make it as difficult as possible for Russia to obtain the technology it needs to manufacture weapons, to reduce profits and the ability to finance the war, and finally, to impose a high price on the country’s economy in response to a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.” – explained O’Sullivan.
He reminded that these sanctions, which the EU and its influential international partners impose on Russia, do not have a UN mandate. Although they are implemented in the broad G7+ coalition, which accounts for a large part of the world’s GDP, many countries are not obliged to comply with these sanctions. And the sanctions regime itself has gaps that would not exist if it were applied under the UN mandate.
Read also: The EU named the main goal of sanctions against Russia “As far as Russia’s profits are concerned, I want to say that now about 30% of all its public expenditures are directed to the war. About 67% of GDP is military spending. So Russia is forced to cannibalize its own productive economy in order to transform it into a war economy. You can do this, especially if you are not a democracy. But this has a huge price for the future of the economy,” said the EU representative.
Russia’s national welfare fund, designed to protect the population from shock phenomena, has decreased by 40%, the EU special representative noted. It was directed to military purposes, and it is reasonable to assume that this fund will soon be depleted.
“If you look at the level of inflation, the interest rate and other indicators, as an economist, I can say that the Russian economy is not in good shape, as some say. Of course, Russia is still able to continue this unhealthy situation in the next years – one, two years – who knows? But this comes at a high price. And this is also one of the results of our sanctions,” O’Sullivan emphasized.
Read also: The EU is considering three options for extending sanctions on the frozen assets of the Russian Federation – Reuters As reported, since the beginning of the full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, the EU has already applied 14 rounds of personal and sectoral economic sanctions against Russia in order to deprive it of access to high technologies and the ability to finance an aggressive war. At the same time, the European Union pays great attention to the introduction of “secondary” sanctions, which should prevent attempts to circumvent EU sanctions by individuals or legal entities, as well as individual countries.