More Proof that EU Sanctions Are a Failure

The European Commission tweeted proudly on Jan. 20: “We have imposed nine rounds of heavy sanctions against Russia, crippling its ability to finance the war.” Just three days before, at the World Economic Forum, Ursula von der Leyen spouted the same line, claiming that the EU sanctions “leave the Russian economy facing a decade of regression and its industry starved of any modern and critical technologies”.

The mouthpiece of the City of London, The Economist, does not agree. An article in its year-end issue, titled “In 2022 Russia Kept the Economic Show on the Road”, gives various reasons why Western forecasts of a collapse of the Russian economy have failed, and concludes: “At current, the Russian economic system is in higher form than anticipated. Meanwhile Europe, weighed down by sky-high power prices, is falling into recession.” The same lament was echoed by European MP Guy Verhofstadt, a rabid “Russia-basher”, on Jan. 2 (cf. SAS 2/23).

Some concrete data on the Russian economy, contrasted to what Brussels expected, were summarized by Italian economist Michele Geraci in a Jan. 20 tweet: Exports +14% (EU forecast: −30%); Surplus +66% (EU forecast: −22%); Imports −9% ( EU forecast: −35%); GDP −3% ( EU forecast: −11%); ruble +15%. “Here we have a serious problem of delusion: a persistent, false psychotic belief that is being held on to despite indisputable evidence to the contrary,” Geraci commented.