American University of Yale: Western sanctions have major impact on Russia’s economy

Western sanctions and the departure of large international companies from Russia have hit the Russian economy hard. So writes American University of Yale in a report on the impact of the imposed sanctions.

Despite the fact that Moscow received billions of dollars by selling fuels such as oil and gas at high prices, the domestic economy in particular is doing badly. This is evident from data from companies, banks, consultants and Russian trading partners.

In 2014, sanctions were imposed earlier during the seizure of Crimea, but the economy was kept afloat by investments from abroad and imports of technologies such as chips. The sanctions back then were less severe, which allowed most imports to be replaced by domestic products.

According to the report, it is not certain that the Russian economy will stay afloat today because of the tens of billions of dollars that are brought in every month by exporting fuels. The researchers therefore say that the data has shown that Russia’s energy revenues have fallen in the past three months. If Europe finds a way to stop using Russian natural gas, it will cause major problems in the country. According to the researchers, Russia is therefore much more dependent on Europe than Europe is on Russia.