Why the sanctions on Russia are blunted

The western sanctions on Russia are designed to discipline, rather than defeat, the Kremlin regime. I talked with Alona Lyasheva of Commons (Spil’ne), Ukraine’s leading journal of radical and socialist thought, about the dynamics on their new podcast HERE.

The price cap on Russian oil exports has a limited effect. And while Russia’s Central Bank funds and other financial assets have been frozen, hundreds of millions of Russian oligarchs’ money keeps flowing to the offshore zones or to bolt-holes in the UK and other countries.

As for gas, we are witnessing the Kremlin’s extraordinary self-harm: it has sharply cut down supplies to Europe, hoping in vain that this would turn nations there against Ukraine … and effectively wrecked a business that took half a century to build up.

Enjoy the podcast! Simon Pirani, 16 May 2023.

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Workers repair electrical infrastructure damaged by bombing, Kyiv, February 2023. During the 2022-23 heating season, the electricity system suffered 197 missile attacks and 47 drone attacks, which damaged or destroyed 43% of high-voltage networks