On Thursday 19 January, Pushkin House invites you to listen to a panel of experts who will discuss the economic sanctions that the West has imposed on Russia. Designed to penalise any contribution to Russia’s war machine, these sanctions have crippled Russian industrial production and damaged the commercial and financial sectors, but have not yet put an end to the war. How do the experts regard the current situation? The speakers include Maximilian Hess, Elina Ribakova and Nicholas Trickett, and the conversation will be moderated by Dasha Afanasieva.
Certainly, the Russian Federation is not the first country to experience the pressure of economic sanctions that aim to deter counter imperialist foreign policy. Economists and politicians have used them for decades, both strategically and symbolically. Nevertheless, sanctions hardly ever lead directly to regime change. So, what is their role?
By all accounts, the Russian economy will not recover any time soon. Lack of access to state-of-the-art technologies makes any economic or scientific progress impossible. The consumer market has sunk. The manufacture of goods relying on imports has collapsed. People are facing the worst economic crisis in the country's modern history. What’s next?
About the speakers
Dasha Afanasieva is a consumer goods reporter at Bloomberg. Previously she was a columnist at Reuters Breakingviews, specialising in Russia and Turkey, and she was a financial reporter and Turkey correspondent with Reuters. At the BBC she was a producer at the Russian Service, the Today programme and Newsnight.
Maximilian Hess is the founder and principal of Enmetena Advisory, a London-based political risk advisory firm. He is also a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and the author of the forthcoming book Economic War: Ukraine and the Global Conflict Between Russia and the West.
Elina Ribakova directs economic research on emerging markets at the Institute of International Finance. She was previously a visiting fellow at Bruegel, where her research focused on financial markets, EMs (emerging markets?) and central banks. Prior to Bruegel, she held senior-level roles in economic research at a diverse set of financial institutions, most recently with Deutsche Bank in London as Head of EEMEA Research, as well as leadership positions at Amundi (Pioneer) Asset Management, Avantium Investment Management and Citigroup.
Nick Trickett is a specialist on the political economy of Russia and Eurasia. He is also the author of the forthcoming book Empire of Austerity: Russia and the Breaking of Eurasia. Previously he worked as a commodities analyst with Fitch Solutions, an oil & gas consultant with Wood Mackenzie, editor-in-chief of FPRI’s BMB Russia and he also produced his own newsletter and blog OGs and OFZs.