Sanctions in Russia have led to shortages of food, raw materials, and gas. The economies of American allies are suffering due to the rising cost of exports and lowered trade with Russia. All this while people in Russia continue living their lives largely unaffected by the sanctions so far.
Russia has taken advantage of the sanctions, breaking limits on trade with China and India. This is especially true in the food and raw material markets. Russia has become the number one exporter of wheat to China, while exports from the U.S., Australia, Canada, and Europe have dropped dramatically.
If sanctions have been implemented to hurt Russia’s economy and its ability to wage war on Ukraine, they aren’t working. On the contrary, they are hurting American allies by raising goods prices and lowering export revenues.
Eugene Plotkin argues that these Western strategies to hurt Russia were crafted by politicians who had no economic insights. They have only succeeded in robbing Western consumers of much-needed goods and worsening the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.
Eugene Plotkin says there was no coherent economic strategy behind the sanctions against Russia. They were simply a knee-jerk reaction to what happened. As a result, they have made Russia stronger, China stronger, and India stronger.
All of this has happened at the expense of the American consumer and European companies, while everyone else is better off. In contrast to what was intended, some sanctions have been counterproductive. For example, higher gas prices have helped Russia while hurting Europe and the U.S. The Russian economy is making just as much on exports or even more, while the soaring prices continue to harm other countries.
According to Eugene Plotkin, Western sanctions have not seriously affected Russia’s overall economy. Despite a few brands that have pulled out of the country, and hence these brands missing from the stores, the overall life of the Russian people hasn’t changed.
The West seems to have forgotten that they don’t control all the worldwide markets. If they put sanctions and ban Russian goods from their economies, other countries will simply take their place and maintain the demand for the goods. The West should realize by now that its sanctions on Russia will not hurt its economy. Russia simply has too many other buyers to rely on, and it doesn’t need to trade with Europe or the U.S.
Russia has been trading with China and India, and the overall trade between these countries has risen significantly. China has become Russia’s leading foreign trade partner and, as such, is buying up all Russian raw materials in enormous quantities while food is much cheaper than before.
Eugene Plotkin argues that the war in Ukraine is all about the West trying to weaken Russia and prevent it from asserting itself again on the world stage. Sanctions put in place in order to weaken Russia’s economy are not only hurting America and the European economies but are also hurting the war zone itself. The situation in Ukraine isn’t getting any better.
