According to the Washington Post, relayed by “Courrier International”, the experts believe that these measures will be “unlikely to modify the calculations” of the master of the Kremlin “in the short term” but that they will on the other hand “rather open the way to a prolonged pressure campaign”.
“The sanctions will not have an immediate deterrent impact”, although Western governments have enough weapons capable of having “extreme economic consequences”, explained the researcher and former adviser to the White House Julia Friedlander, in an interview with the American daily.
“Even if Western governments impose heavier sanctions in the coming weeks, it might take months before they actually have a significant impact on the Russian oligarchs and economy,” she said.
According to the researcher, since Russia has faced a series of sanctions in recent years, especially following its annexation of Crimea and the poisoning of its dissidents, Putin has taken to “hoarding enough foreign currency, gold and other assets in order to be able to survive at least temporarily”, in the event of new Western punitive measures.
Sanctions that would also impact the West
Moscow has also “sought to diversify its trade portfolio to be less dependent on the EU for its export revenues”, notes the Wall Street Journal. If the European Union “remains its largest trading partner to this day, Russia has also sought to expand its ties with Beijing by opening a major gas pipeline to China in 2019”, recalls the financial daily.
The White House clarified on Tuesday that the sanctions it imposed on Moscow, which aim in particular to prevent it from raising Western funds to repay its sovereign debt, were only the “first installment” of the retaliatory measures once morest the Russia. The entire Russian banking sector might be targeted if Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine, a US official has claimed.
But “given that Putin regards Ukraine’s independence following the fall of the Soviet Union as a tragedy in Russian history – a view clearly articulated in his speech on Monday – many analysts wonder whether even the most strong financial sanctions might be enough to dissuade it from trying to reconquer the former Soviet republic”, notes the Los Angeles Times. Especially since “Putin knows with almost certainty that the United States and its NATO allies will not send troops to defend Ukraine”.
The New York Times recalls that American officials are also faced with a dilemma: “they have feared for weeks that the imposition of severe sanctions once morest Russia will also have consequences in the United States, in particular by making increase gas prices”, notes the daily. Jen Psaki, the spokeswoman for the White House has also declared that the Americans must prepare for it.
