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Ofcourse not. Russia is becoming a pariah state like North Korea and Iran: earn enough money to prop up the regime and fund the war but no more state pensions for the elderly or medicine for the sick.

The sanctions isolate Russia and make it diplomatically and economically irrelevant. The Kremlin won't have money for soft power projection. Their regional power is already diminishing.

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Sanctions promised to plunge the economy by up to 50% of their GDP, but instead russian GDP only decreased by approximately 2% - 3% in 2022, so almost nothing. EU and US lost any credibility by promising the harshest sanctions ever, but not achieving anything at all. Yeah, and do I need to say that russian ruble is even stronger than it was before sanctions?

Where did you get these numbers? Not trying to deny the claims, just curious where they're coming from.

Maybe it was here

https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/infographics/impact-sanct...

What volume of trade is that high "official" ruble value based on? The retail/p2p volume outside of state-run banks seems to be higher now, and at a significantly lower ruble value.

& welcome to hn, first commenter!

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