The EU and US Slap Russia With New Sanctions
Jose Nino
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Per a report by TASS, these sanctions don’t feature any sectoral restrictions due to how they are mostly personal, aimed at certain companies and individuals.
That said, this package imposes second secondary sanctions on companies that help Russia circumvent the previously enacted sanctions, according to the analysis of Alexey Zubez, director of the Center for Socioeconomic Research at the Financial University. “Pressure on Russia’s international allies is one of their remaining reserves, and it is a major tool. However, these regulations should not have a significant impact, but rather will boost the incentives to grow domestic production,” the expert stated.
“This package of sanctions targets our partners in China, North Korea and other countries. This is the result of a method aimed at increasing secondary sanctions and it has already expressed itself in the financial sector, as well as payment and settlement instruments for the former Soviet republics and the Middle East,” Nikita Maslennikov, chairman of the Institute of Contemporary Development’s Finance and Economics Department, said to Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
Around the same time, US authorities announced another round of sanctions against over 500 individuals and legal entities based in Russia and third countries considered by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to be so-called “Specially Designated Nationals” (SDN), who face the harshest level of American sanctions. According to American authorities, these organizations and individuals are helping Russia in obtaining future revenue flows from energy exports while also skirting sanctions.
Some of the entities on the sanctions list include officials, organizations connected to the defense sector, engineering business, and IT industry businesses, in addition to 26 individuals and legal organizations from third countries.
The West is clearly not backing away from its sanction campaign against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.This is an exercise in futility. Not only do these sanctions further embolden Russia by compelling it to pursue more expansionary goals in Ukraine, these sanctions will compel Russia to strengthen its alliance with China and further integrate itself with competing geoeconomic blocks such as BRICS.
At some point, elected officials in the West must recognize that interventionist measures such as sanctions have unintended consequences that could result in the total displacement of the West as a relevant geopolitical force. This will require elected officials to drop their myopic mindset for a genuine change in foreign policy decision-making to occur. .
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