One panel at today’s opening day of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) was chaired by the Valdai Discussion Club, moderated by the Club’s Programme Director, Ivan Timofeev, on the global impact of sanctions. The title: “The Risks Sanctions Pose to the Global FInancial System and International Business.” The program description included the following:
“Sanctions present a threat to both the financial infrastructure of the ‘target country’ and foreign banks…. The transformation of the dollar into a weapon carries the threat of unforeseen shocks. Restrictions on the financial sector are also associated with human rights issues, particularly a lack of access to financial services (underbanking) for large groups of citizens…. The intensity and indiscriminate nature with which sanctions are deployed suggests that a targeted political tool is now becoming all-encompassing.”
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, Alena Douhan (a former professor of international law at Belarus State University), spelled out the unilateral sanctions from the US and EU are illegal under international law, and are imposed “without any attempt at legal proceedings, without due process.” Due especially to the use of “secondary sanctions,” they create fear in businesses and banks to do any business with sanctioned countries or businesses or individuals. The impact is severe on a nation’s “health system, water and electricity, transportation — people can not get to the hospitals.” She named Venezuela, Syria, and Yemen as countries in which the hospitals have practically no medicine, no vaccines, high unemployment, and a consequent vast increase in crime and trafficking of people and drugs.
