DISINFO: Sanctions against Russia leading to opposite result than intended
SUMMARY
The second reason for French President Emmanual Macron's hysterical statement about sending foreign troops into Ukraine is the final failure of the entire two-year policy of sanctions. Everything that is happening in the Russian economy and on the BRICS platform is a challenge to the ideology of sanctions and the collapse of the Russian economy, as well as the defeat of the idea that Russia will fall apart from within. Nothing of it is working out. Everything is going in the opposite direction.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative claiming that the international sanctions against Russia are inefficient. This claim was made in the context of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s economy has felt serious impact from the international sanctions its unjustified and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The ruble has weakened and inflation is soaring. Despite Moscow’s welcoming efforts, Foreign Direct Investment is falling. Hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens have fled the country since the outbreak the invasion. Sanctions on Russia's banking and financial system, the embargo on electronic components and the price caps on Russian oil and petroleum products have also led to serious consequences for the Russian economy.
Although the international sanctions have crippled some sectors of the Russian economy, some other branches have registered certain growth. It was largely a result of its shift to a war-type economy rather than the allegedly opposite effect of the sanctions. The seemingly upbeat trend can lead to overheating in the long run, which some senior economic officials in Russia recognise. ‘We might go fast, but not for long,’ central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina said in December 2023.
The increase in military production has led to the neglect of other economic sectors. The current focus on military production has diverted resources from Russia’s civilian industries, making it more difficult to rely on branches that typically form the backbone of advanced economies to provide long-term growth. Moreover, Russian military spending is very high - only for one massive missile attack on Ukraine on 2 January, 2024 Russia spent about $620 million. Russia often presents positive results of the country’s economic performance, but this data cannot be relied upon because it is often distorted and falsified.
International sanctions were imposed on Russia after it illegally annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014. More restrictive measures were slapped on Russia after it attacked Ukraine on 24 February 2022 in the largest armed conflict in Europe since the Second World War. In February 2024, the EU adopted the 13th package of economic sanctions.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that Putin’s Russia stood firm despite Western sanctions, that Borrell admitted that sanctions against Russia do not work, and that German car industry collapsing due to sanctions on Russia and expensive gas.