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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago today was met with an unprecedented series of sanctions that got more painful as the months passed.
Russia’s banks were largely cut off from the global financial system, tens of billions of dollars in assets were frozen, embargoes of energy and other Russian products were imposed, and oligarchs and political leaders seen as getting rich off the Putin regime were targeted. Separately, over 1,000 of the world’s biggest companies, including Apple and McDonald’s, cut ties with Russia.
But despite all this, the Russian economy has performed surprisingly well. In fact, Russia recorded a record current account surplus in 2022, meaning it exported more than it imported, thanks to a boom in energy revenue. And so, despite the sanctions and costly blunders on the battlefield, Putin’s war machine marches on in Ukraine.
So why haven't the sanctions worked?
Peter Rutland, who has studied the Soviet and Russian economy for over four decades, argues there are four major reasons Putin has managed to shrug off the sanctions. But the Wesleyan scholar also explains why that may begin to change as the war enters its second year.
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