Moscow has been fast to shrug off the coordinated sanctions towards its two largest oil corporations, Rosneft and Lukoil.
“Counterproductive” is how the Russian Overseas Ministry described the measures.
It warned the Trump administration that it might fail and accused the EU of being unable to just accept that its sanctions do not work.
Ukraine struggle newest: Putin ally’s warning over sanctions
It is a comparable response within the papers. “Couldn’t you have come up with something better?” asks the Russian tabloid, Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Please use Chrome browser for a extra accessible video participant
2:58
New US sanctions on Russia: What do we all know?
Such bravado was predictable. Russia by no means likes to indicate weak spot. Beneath it, although, I feel there will likely be concern.
That is as a result of these aren’t simply any sanctions. They’re coordinated measures which goal the financial equal of Russia’s crown jewels.
I feel there’s additionally a level of shock on the US sanctions, which mark the primary time this Trump administration has taken punitive motion towards Russia.
After months of threats that didn’t quantity to something, there gave the impression to be a perception right here that the American president would by no means really do it. That he was all mouth and no trousers.
So there will be shock at that, and in addition at how rapidly this U-turn has come about.
Picture:
Vladimir Putin. Pic: Grigory Sysoyev, Sputnik/AP
Lower than per week in the past, Donald Trump seemed to be buddying up with Vladimir Putin, with discuss of a get-together in Budapest. Now unexpectedly, there is no summit, solely sanctions.
Will the sanctions work? Will they harm the “Kremlin’s war machine”, because the US Treasury put it.
Brief reply – most likely not instantly.
Moscow has been capable of keep navy spending through tax hikes and spending cuts elsewhere, and economists imagine there’s nonetheless some fats Russia can trim, for instance, infrastructure funding, earlier than scaling again defence.
Long term, although, in six months, say, the consensus amongst consultants is that it will likely be felt, assuming it forces nations like China and India to cut back their imports of Russian oil.
However even when that is the case, will it drive Mr Putin to vary course? There is definitely no signal of that but.
Despite the sanctions, Russia’s Overseas Ministry stated that Moscow’s objectives “remain unchanged”.
Whereas former-president-turned-Kremlin-hawk Dmitiry Medvedev went additional, suggesting the transfer merely permits Moscow to step up its navy marketing campaign towards Ukraine “without regard to unnecessary negotiations”.
