Russia’s Damage from International Sanctions: Rethinking the Facts

Abstract

The article formulates a methodological principle for the analysis of the scale of economic damage caused to the Russian economy by international sanctions imposed in 2014. The proposed principle of qualitative transformation allows to fix the principal change in the situation, if the changes in economic indicators reach multiple (more than 2 times) differences. On the example of foreign trade, including with countries that supported international sanctions, it is shown that theRussiafor several years was in a completely different economic dimension. A similar situation occurred in the monetary sphere (on current exchange rate), domestic price formation (price of gasoline), attraction of direct investments. In addition, there are examples when the actions of foreign market participants involved in the sanctions war, blocked many positive Russian initiatives-integration into world science, the output of high-tech equipment to foreign markets, etc. It is shown that the gradual weakening of the country by means of international sanctions led, if not to the complete, then partial collapse of the model of the social state, which put a heavy burden on the population of the country. It is proved that in such conditions it is necessary to revise the economic policy in the direction of strengthening its creative beginning.