DISINFO: Anti-Russian sanctions have a positive effect

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Western sanctions on Russia. You can see other examples of this narrative on the 'illegitimate' and 'useless' sanctions against Russia here and here. According to the Washington Post, sanctions imposed on Russia after the Crimea annexation and Russian meddling in the US elections sapped Russian economical growth, including very modest growth despite the rise in hydrocarbon prices, the stagnation of salaries and growing inflation. Sanctions have knocked 6 percent off Russia's GDP since 2014, a Bloomberg report noted recently. The GDP of the "world's biggest energy exporter" is now 10 percent smaller than might have been expected at the end of 2013, before the Crimea crisis, it said. The figures mentioned are not true, and there are no sources, from where they were taken. The share of goods banned from export to the Russian Federation in 2014 is very small and amounts to only 0.3% of the EU-28 exports to third countries. The EU has successfully diversified. The increase in exports of agricultural products to third countries from the EU-28 in 2014-2017 is worth more than triple the reduction of exports to Russia: EUR 18 billion versus 5.4 billion. The effect of sanctions on the US economy has been extremely limited, largely due to the relatively small share of Russian trade within the wider US economy. GDP growth in the US has remained positive since the imposition of sanctions, although export and import trade volumes with Russia have decreased in the years following. The top 5 countries most affected by the decrease in exports to the Russian Federation in 2014-2017 are Lithuania (5% reduction), Estonia (4.3%), Finland (4%), Slovakia (3.7 %) and Latvia (2.5%), i.e. the countries that do not voice opposition to the sanctions.