DISINFO: Russia grows despite EU sanctions
SUMMARY
Russia has learned how to cope with the European sanctions strategy. 13 packages have been adopted. The Russian economy is far from being in tatters. It has registered 3.2% growth.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the EU sanctions on Russia, which aims to portray the Russian economy as strong and the sanctions as useless. This claim was made in the context of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The claim seeks to portray a rosy impression of the Russian economy which is seriously contrasted by famous economists including for example Sergei Guriev, see his analysis here. In the long run, Guriev says, Putin's economy is not great, plagued by capital outflow and lack of access to modern technologies, but Russia’s revitalized repressive apparatus can easily tamp down discontent for now. Rosy GDP figures are misleading during wartime, Guriev pointed out, because they reflect ramped-up military production, which doesn’t contribute either to quality of life or to future economic growth; some indicators, in fact, suggest a grimmer economic picture for ordinary Russians — for example, a 10% drop in consumer spending in 2022.
The EU has reacted swiftly and strongly to the Russian unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine with unprecedented support for Kyiv. 13 sanction packages have so far been adopted against Moscow, which have severely damaged the Russian economy. HRVP Josep Borrell said at the Investors’ Forum for Transport Connectivity with the EU on 24 January 2024 that sanctions ‘have significantly weakened its [Russia’s] war machine.’
Despite some temporarily occasional and insignificant rising trends due to military spending, sanctions against it have generally led to a decline in its trade and negative trends in its general economic performance. Russia’s economy can suffer from overheating in the long run, which some senior economic officials in Russia recognise. Foreign Direct Investment has dropped to insignificance. The fact that Russia has to purchase drones and other kinds of military equipment abroad is another indication of its economic problems.
The EU imposed economic sanctions on Russia in the wake of its illegal annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014. More sanctions have been imposed on Moscow since the launch of nits unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine in 2024
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that Borrell admitted that sanctions against Russia do not work, that Germany lacks sovereignty and sanctions harm the EU, and that Western restrictions against Russian citizens are racist.