DISINFO: Europe suffered more from sanctions than Russia
SUMMARY
The United States believed that the Russian economy would be destroyed by sanctions and the ruble would turn into rubble. However, none of this happened. Moscow weathered the sanctions far better than the US-allied Western European countries, whose economies dried up without Russian energy imports.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about backfired Western sanctions on Russia. The claim was neither counterbalanced nor critically challenged in the article.
Following Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, as of early May 2023, the Council has adopted ten packages of sanctions against Russia and Belarus. The sanctions aim at weakening Russia’s ability to finance the war and specifically target the political, military and economic elite responsible for the invasion, as the EU Council explains.
The claim about the dire economic situation in western countries contradicts factual evidence. It follows from the analysis by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that in 2022, Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) dropped by at least 2.2% in the best-case scenario and by up to 3.9% in the worst-case scenario.
A study from Yale University takes a detailed look into the effects sanctions are having on the Russian economy, concluding that "business retreats and sanctions are catastrophically crippling the Russian economy."
According to the latest European Commission data, growth in the EU and the euro area is estimated at 3.5% for 2022, which is said to be “quite outstanding outturns, proving the remarkable resilience of the EU economy to the headwinds unleashed by Russia's war against Ukraine and in particular the energy crisis”.
Read an earlier detailed analysis of the Russian disinformation narratives about EU sanctions and a few related cases: the EU’s economy is crumbling as a result of anti-Russian sanctions; The New York Times reports that Russia is barely affected by sanctions; Sanctions are beneficial to Russia so the West should recognise Crimea as Russian; The EU lost more from sanctions than Russia, European sanctions against Russia do not work.