On Tuesday, Axios reported that a new paper headed up by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld of Yale University suggests Western sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine are doing their job — and decimating the Russian economy.
"The big question about Russia sanctions is whether they have teeth, if they exclude Russian oil and gas," reported Felix Salmon. "While official Russian statistics suggest the economy is using its oil and gas revenues to withstand the effects of sanctions, Sonnenfeld's paper says that the official Russian statistics are lies."
"The paper's results include sobering facts about the Russian economy," the report continued. "'Russian imports have largely collapsed,' the paper says — creating massive supply shortages and denying the country crucial parts and technologies. 'Russian domestic production has come to a complete standstill.' Foreign companies that have left Russia account for 40% of Russian GDP, the author wrote, almost none of which is going to come back any time soon."
Making matters worse for Russia, their one bit of leverage of Europe — cutting exports of natural gas — doesn't appear to be working, because only 46 percent of Europe's gas comes from Russia, whereas 83 percent of Russian natural gas exports go to Europe, meaning the cuts actually hurt Russia more than Europe.
"Looking ahead, there is no path out of economic oblivion for Russia as long as the allied countries remain unified in maintaining and increasing sanctions pressure," the paper said.
This comes as another analysis reveals that China — one of Russia's most important allies — is not fully committed to helping Vladimir Putin either. While China is buying Russian energy to make up for Europe's reduced imports, the country is also publicly committing to support Ukraine's territorial sovereignty — and is not aiding the Russian military.
