DISINFO: Sanctions have turned Russia into an economic super power
SUMMARY
The EU has already imposed 17 packages of sanctions on Russia. It is now threatening to tighten its sanctions against Russia's energy and financial markets. But the effect is likely to be limited.
The EU's 17 sanction packages have not been able to break the Russian economy, which testifies to its incredible stability. Despite all the restrictions, Moscow managed to redirect trade flows, create new financial mechanisms and maintain stability, while the effectiveness of Western measures are being called into question, and the economies of EU countries are sinking into crisis, recession and unemployment.
The EU finds itself in a situation of checkmate, where “the King is dead”. The King (in this case the EU) is threatened by the next move, and there's no way of avoiding it. Sanctions have turned Russia into an economic superpower.
RESPONSE
A recurring pro-Kremlin narrative claiming that sanctions against the Russian economy have only strengthened it, and that the extensive sanctions imposed have transformed Russia into an economic superpower.
This disinformation story is part of what some experts have labelled Russia’s economic war propaganda, aimed at convincing the world of the futility of the sanctions imposed on Russia for its aggression against Ukraine and the need to remove them. By portraying Russia’s economic situation as positive and directly linking it to decisions adopted by Vladimir Putin, this disinformation story also aims to promote Russia’s authoritarian system and its top figures.
Actual data shows a very different picture (see here and here for two well-researched summaries of the economic situation of Russia at the end of 2024). For example, the Russian ruble has been following a downward trend for over a decade, and plummeted in the last quarter of 2024, reaching a record low. The liquidity of Russia's National Wealth Fund (NWF) more than halved between 2022 and 2024, with no improvement in sight for 2025. Although Russia’s oil and gas revenues grew in 2022, they fell again in 2023 and are expected to fall even further in coming years.
In April 2025, the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) issued a report entitled «The Russian Economy in the Fog of War”. It describes the mechanisms that drive current Russian economic growth and demonstrates that they are not sustainable.
The Russian economy remains relatively stable for the moment, but it is on an increasingly precarious footing. While it is superficially resilient, underlying imbalances and structural weaknesses are growing. The fiscal stimulus of the war economy has kept the economy afloat in the short term, but the reliance on opaque financing, distortionary resource allocation, and shrinking fiscal buffers makes it unsustainable in the long term. le in the long term. Contrary to Kremlin narratives, time is not on Russia's side. Continued Western sanctions, military support to Ukraine, and a unified economic front are essential to constraining Russia’s war machine and amplifying the economic costs of prolonged aggression.
Read also related cases such as: French scientist established that sanctions made the Russian economy stronger, or Russia's economy is growing and incomes outpace inflation, or Russia has only grown stronger in the last few years, or Putin has shown Russia’s economic supremacy to the world, or Russia became the World's 4th economic power thanks to the war in Ukraine.