![]() ![]() This raises the question of why they changed course and sacrificed their own credibility in the process. Two years into the pandemic, the experts are now the last to acknowledge the accuracy of their earlier predictions. Following the first wave of Western sanctions, in 2014, and partly in retaliation against them, Putin embarked on what analysts have dubbed a “Fortress Russia” strategy, building up the country’s international reserves and diversifying them away from US dollars and British pounds, reducing its foreign exposure, boosting its economic cooperation with China, and pursuing import substitution strategies in several industries, including food, medicine and technology, in an effort to insulate Russia as much as possible from external shocks. Far more likely is that this turns out to be the latest Western strategic miscalculation in a long list of strategic blunders, of which the United States’ inglorious withdrawal from Afghanistan is just the most recent example.Īfter all, Russia has been preparing for this moment for quite some time. But history suggests otherwise: see Iraq, or more recently Iran. At the very least, we’re told, they will hinder Russia’s war efforts. So what should we expect from the sanctions? Western pundits and commentators have little doubt: the sanctions will hamstring the Russian economy, sow discontent among the Russian people and elites alike, and possibly even cause the downfall of the Putin regime.
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