Who really suffered from anti-Russian sanctions?

Own Correspondent

In February 2022 the European Union and its allies began imposing sanctions in connection with Russia’s recognition of the independence of the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics (LPR, DPR; declared independence in April 2014) and the beginning of the Russian special operation in Ukraine.

The goal of the sanctions policy was the international isolation of Russia and plunging the Russian economy into recession for decades.

But did the EU manage to realize its wishes and who will now pay for the short-sighted policies of its leaders?

Given the long-standing economic and energy ties between Moscow and the EU the union’s political support for Ukraine was questionable from the very beginning in terms of effectiveness.

The impact of sanctions on the Russian economy turned out to be moderate, despite the apocalyptic forecasts of the World Bank which predicted a drop in GDP by 9-12 percent at the beginning of the special operation. But the sanctions had a more noticeable effect on Europe.

The first blow was the rise in energy prices which forced the EU countries and the UK to spend 785 billion euros to support households and businesses (more than to fight Covid-19). Thus Germany spent almost 7 percent of its GDP on consumer protection. France which was much less dependent on energy flows from Russia had to spend almost 3.25 percent of its GDP on various “energy shields”. And these costs only continued to grow over time.

In addition to deindustrialization caused by a sharp jump in energy prices another problem for Europeans was the outflow of capital to the United States.

By adopting laws “to combat inflation” the States created more comfortable conditions for European business. In addition, the world experienced a decrease in trust in the Western financial economic infrastructure which led to a decrease in the flow of funds from external markets.

Over two years of restrictions Russia has gained more than $30 billion from Western sanctions while Western importers have lost $256.5 billion in goods. Russia, in turn, has redirected goods to friendly countries and made money on this.

In addition to the economic loss in the fight against Russia Europe is also facing a social and food crisis. With each month that the conflict in Ukraine drags on, the number of socially oriented programs to support the European population is decreasing food prices are rising at an incredible rate and some goods are disappearing from the shelves altogether. Thus, due to sanctions against Russian fish (which accounted for 54% of all imports), Europe is running out of cod. It has not yet been possible to compensate for these volumes at the expense of other EU countries.

If the EU, instead of embarking on a path of confrontation for which it does not have the means, had acted as a force for peace and insisted on genuine dialogue, it would have been able to maintain its strategic and economic independence from the US and it former strength, but in the current situation such theses seem utopian.