The new plan against Moscow will include trade bans, technology exports, banks. According to Le Monde, however, the Russian economy has turned out to be much more resilient than expected.
"We will propose a tenth package of measures. With new trade bans and controls on technology exports to Russia. This package has a total value of 11 billion euros. We will propose, among other things, export restrictions on multiple electronic components used in Russian weapon systems, such as drones, missiles and helicopters."
The President of the European Commission, [Ursula von der Leyen, in the debate in the plenary of the European Parliament on Ukraine one year after the invasion, formalized the new squeeze on Moscow. The European Union has decided to accelerate the approval of the tenth package of sanctions against Russia for 11 billion euros. The new plan should be on the way as early as February 24.
Von der Leyen also announced something new on Iran: "For the first time we are proposing sanctions also against Tehran. Including those related to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard". The president of the Commission reiterated that support for Kiev "will continue to be stable and predictable, every month. This is what Europe promised. And we kept our promise." And he said the Kremlin was forced to draw on its gold reserves.
At the same time, comes the new attack by the Russian Foreign Minister, Serghei Lavrov: "The policy of Washington and its European allies to transform Ukraine into an anti-Russian stronghold is reaching the point of no return», said the minister speaking in Parliament. The minister, quoted by Tass, underlined that "for many years" the West has had a "policy of containment of Russia, also through the expansion of NATO towards the Russian borders and through the transformation of fraternal Ukraine into anti-Russian, in a Russophobic military stronghold."
Russia’s policy of containment, beyond the proclamations and hopes of the EU, seems in fact not to have achieved, however, the hoped-for objectives. The predictions were that, by abandoning the importation of Russian gas, Moscow would see the beginning of an unprecedented crisis. But all this did not happen, as evidenced by Jean-Michel Bezat in Le Monde. Indeed, according to the conclusion of the French newspaper on the analysis of the last 12 months, the Russian economy has proved to be much more resilient than expected in the West.
According to Le Monde, "the country did not suffer any collapse," said the French Economy Minister, Bruno Le Maire, "in the first hours of the invasion of Ukraine and the establishment of Western sanctions, amplified in nine successive waves since March 2022. Although every attempt has been made to put the Russian economy in difficulty with repeated packages of sanctions, Moscow has been able to cushion the blows: Russian GDP has decreased by only 2.2% instead of the 8.5% expected by economists in March of last year”, notes Le Monde. Business activity in Russia, the newspaper points out, will grow by 0.3% this year and is expected to increase by 2.1% in 2024.
Several factors explain this apparent resilience. Starting with the Central Bank policy, which has stabilized the ruble since the beginning of the war and avoided an inflationary blowout. The country also has significant foreign exchange reserves drawn from the black gold, despite the freezing of 300 billion dollars (about 281 billion euros) abroad. After the sanctions adopted following the annexation of Crimea in 2014, it has developed local production (food, textiles, etc.). Customs data also points to a sharp increase in imports in transit through former Soviet republics such as Armenia and Kazakhstan, especially of products containing microprocessors, while Turkey remains a gateway through the Caucasus . China supplies spare parts, sometimes useful to the defense industry. And the wheat harvest has been outstanding in 2022.
In short, Russia is a giant that is far from dying and the European EU should start worrying about the failure of the policies adopted to support Kiev.
Original article published on Money.it Italy 2023-02-16 08:00:00. Original title: Von der Leyen annuncia decimo pacchetto di sanzioni a Mosca, ma l’economia russa resiste
