The impact of sanctions on Russia

 Business Insider:

Russia admitted that its economy was on the brink of ruin last year, but it's claiming now that it has beaten sanctions and is on track for strong growth this year, despite economists' projections in light of persistent restrictions on its economy.

"There was a threat of a collapse, we really had to mobilize all resources and internal forces in order to prevent this collapse," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said to Russia's state-run news agency TASS on Sunday.

That economic pressure was largely brought on by sanctions following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Peskov added. The sanctions included cutting Russia off from around $300 billion in foreign exchange reserves, booting some of its banks from the important SWIFT network, and implementing a ban and a $60 price cap on Russian oil, one of the nation's top revenue sources.

But the nation has successfully recovered and is now entering a growth stage, Peskov said. The Kremlin is now predicting that Russia could grow as much as 3% this year, above of the 2.2% projected by the International Monetary Fund.

"Thanks to the rather insightful and wise decisions of the country's leadership, thanks to the titanic work of the government, it was possible to reach a plateau, stabilize [the economic situation] and then, in an absolutely unexpected way, enter a growth trend," Peskov added.

The statement is a rare acknowledgement of the effectiveness of sanctions by officials in Russia, who have put up a show of defiance amid the West's trade restrictions. In 2022, Putin described key western measures, like the $60 oil price cap, as "stupid," and vowed to retaliate by slashing oil production, which threatened to send prices higher.
...

Critical sectors, like Russia's auto industry, have nearly completely collapsed over the past year. Meanwhile, inflation continues to rage, and central bankers are scrambling prop up the value of Russia's ruble, which has plunged over the past year.
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Russia's war in Ukraine has not been the smashing success it anticipated.  The Russians thought they would take all of Ukraine in a couple of weeks if not sooner.  Now they are bitterly clinging to a few provinces of the country and have had to expend more of the troops and equipment than they ever anticipated.  Their equipment losses are so huge that they are now no longer able to use combined arms operations and are more dependent on just infantry and many of those troops are convicts and new recruits because of the losses they have incurred. 

See, also:

Ukrainian forces invent innovative method to attack Russian rear facilities — video

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