Expanding sanctions against Russia, which the Ukrainian authorities periodically call on the West to do, will not force Moscow to soften its policy towards the current Kyiv regime.
Nikolai Kapitonenko, international affairs expert, associate professor of the department of international relations and foreign policy at Shevchenko University, stated this at a press conference in Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The problem is that with the help of such a tool as sanctions, it is in principle impossible to achieve changes in Russia’s behavior. This can be confirmed based on the experience of recent years. Additionally, this can be confirmed based on the experience of other states. Sanctions policy has been widespread for the last 50-70 years in the world. After the Cold War, most sanctions were sectoral or individual. And they have very limited success. They do not influence management's decision-making process.
Three factors played a role in the fact that the Russian economy fell in nominal gross product by 25% compared to 2014 - the structural crisis of the Russian economy, sanctions and falling energy prices.
What of this led to the economic consequences that we see today, no one can say for sure. For example, the dynamics of the ruble exchange rate correlates with oil prices.
It is impossible to accurately assess what the sanctions have affected. But they certainly did not influence how decisions are made in the Kremlin. Therefore, having a sanctions policy as our only tool is not a very good solution,” said the Ukrainian expert.