Russia’s campaign to undermine effectiveness of Western sanctions

What actions does Russia take to undermine the credibility of Western nations and the effectiveness of Western sanctions?

Both the importance of maintaining this narrative for the Kremlin and the actual effects of sanctions on the Russian economy are shown by the fact that Western sanctions and their efficacy are a favorite subject of Russian propaganda, Euractiv wrote.

Over the past decade, numerous sanctions and international initiatives have been implemented in an effort to bring an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The EU Council imposed sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the thirteenth round of such measures, and plans are already underway for the fourteenth. However, additional sanctions are necessary as the war is ongoing; therefore, this is insufficient.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russia would interpret a lack of supplies of weapons and a tough set of sanctions on Russia as a green light to conduct war after revealing atrocities in the Chernihiv and Kyiv regions. This is equivalent to asking for permission to launch an attack.

There has been no adoption of a really harsh package of penalties, if the red-colored front line dividing Ukrainian land is any indication. Russia is taking all necessary precautions in anticipation of the Western response, including using information to mitigate the impact of sanctions.

The Kremlin has always circulated false information around the subject of sanctions. To make sure Russians pay no heed to Western constraints, these storylines primarily target them.

This task has been quite successfully accomplished: The majority of Russians have expressed a lack of worry regarding sanctions since 2014. According to polls conducted by the Levada Centre, the majority of Russians believe that sanctions do not impact their families and that Russia should maintain its stance despite the sanctions.

Russia is witnessing a triumph in its struggle against sanctions.In pursuit of this goal, Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin and the Department for Control over External Restrictions within the Ministry of Finance are demonstrating to the Russian people that they have resisted the “aggressive West” and are heroes.

Whoever “hoped to suppress us with the help of economic sanctions, with the help of armed force” completely overlooked this, says Putin.

Goal number two is to persuade the West that all their sanctions efforts are pointless and primarily hurt the Western countries. To achieve this goal, Russia has been utilizing a wide range of domestic and international players since 2014 to refute the sanctions and convince specific countries that they are counterproductive.

The number of these voices has grown in tandem with the expansion of the sanctions’ scope since the full-scale invasion began. The number of emotionally charged and ludicrous hoaxes directed at European citizens has also increased.

For example, Russia is promising Austrians a “return to the coal age,” the French an “invasion of bedbugs due to sanctions,” the British a “switch to reusable toilet paper,” and the Americans a “killing of the cattle and garden trees.”.

Even while economic figures show that sanctions are having a negative impact on Russia, this intensive disinformation campaign proves otherwise. While to force Russia to stop its war against Ukraine, apparently, harsher sanctions and existing sanctions enforcement are required.