Sanctions Against Russia: A Structural Perspective

The article aims to examine the mechanisms through which sanctions imposed by the collective West affect Russia’s national economy and financial system. The analysis encompasses both the targeted sanctions introduced during the period of the "Crimean Spring" and the significantly broader sanctions imposed in response to the special military operation in Ukraine. A comparative analysis of the fi rst and second waves of sanctions, as well as of technological, energy, and financial sanctions is conducted, revealing the cause-and-effect relations between their introduction and the condition of the Russian economy. The study found that technological sanctions are intended to remove the national economy from the natural trajectory of science and technology progress, hinder its neo-industrialization, and prevent further increases in defensive power. Energy sanctions are aimed at maximum exhaustion of the budgetary system by sharply reducing export revenues of fuel and energy companies and inflows of convertible foreign currency. Financial sanctions seek to distance the country from global capital markets and to freeze an unprecedented share of international reserves. As a result of the economic and theoretical analysis, the socio-economic consequences of these external restrictions are identified, and their prospective impact on the balance of federal budget revenues and expenditures, rates of inflation and depreciation of the ruble, investment climate, trade balance, and other macro indicators of economic conditions is assessed.