Helaba (Hesse State Bank) Chief Economist of Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen, Gertrud Traud, has assessed that the sanctions against Russia harmed Germany and the entire world more than the country against which they were directed. She further concludes that the impact of the war and the sanctions on the Russian economy is much smaller than initially expected. On the one hand, Russia was better prepared for war than had been assumed, and on the other hand, Russia’s isolation in the world is not as strong as had been hoped.
The hoped-for shortage of goods imported into Russia as a result of the sanctions did not have the desired effect of destabilizing Russia as much as expected. On the contrary, Russian trade with other countries is steadily increasing, e.g. China holding on to the construction of a gas pipeline. In the world’s poorer countries, however, the danger of significant crises due to the sanctions continues to grow.
What is aggravating is how much “the West” has significantly overestimated the vulnerability and fragility of Russia related to the importance of its now-blocked supply of raw materials for global trade.
