The West ignores Russia’s strategic interests. It wants to contain Russia. Sanctions are a tool of unfair competition. The West supports young, active and ambitious politicians in Russia so that the opposition come to power and destroy the military and industrial potential Vladimir Putin has amassed. The West interferes in Russia's internal affairs by financing a great number of non-profit organisations.
Summary
US sanctions against Russia can be described by the saying "all the steam went into the whistle"... The "economic" sanctions that were implemented only led to the development of some sectors of the economy that had been stagnating.
Disproof
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative claiming that Western sanctions against Russia are ineffective.
This kind of claim, which is not backed by evidence, has been clearly challenged by research that points out that sanctions have worked as planned, noting the drag they have imposed on Russia’s general economic development since 2014. This adverse effect most likely operates by depressing both foreign trade and foreign capital flows into Russia. Or as The Washington Post said: "The sanctions have stunted Russian economic growth and sapped the urban middle class of wealth and opportunity."
According to a Bloomberg report, sanctions have knocked off 6% of Russia’s GDP since 2014. The sanctions played a major role, although other factors were present as well. And the GDP of the Russian Federation is now 10 per cent smaller than might have been expected before the crisis with Crimea. Sanctions also play an important role in the relatively small wage increase in Russia in comparison to other countries in 2019.
Russia’s own counter-sanctions have also had a clear negative effect on the welfare of the average Russian household. The false narrative about sanctions is often backed by false statistics.
It’s noteworthy that the role of sanctions was never to destroy the capabilities of Russian companies, but the purpose of sanctions is precise to “deter or compel it to act in accordance with the interests of the sanctioning state… and they represent a particularly useful application of this foreign policy tool”, in order to “make it more difficult for him (Putin) to deal with the consequences of his actions as more ordinary Russians suffer”.
It’s also worth noting that Western sanctions on Russia are a response to specific unacceptable foreign policy actions by the Kremlin which undermine international stability and security, such as the illegitimate annexation of Crimea and the destabilisation of Eastern Ukraine, the shooting down of flight MH17, the poisoning with chemical weapons of Sergey Skrypal and his daughter in the UK, as well as Russia's interference in US elections, the SolarWinds attack and other malicious cyber activities and transnational corruption, in addition to the attempted murder of political opponent Alexei Navalny and the violation of his rights by his arbitrary arrest, trial and sentencing,
Read similar cases in our database that claim that the West is threatening Russia with fruitless sanctions and that Western sanctions are illegal and hostile actions; or that Western sanctions against Russia will be in place forever; or that sanctions aim to weaken the unity of Russians; or that sanctions are illegal and hostile actions.