Six years ago, the United States and the European Union slammed the
door on Western bank loans for Russian companies, starving the country’s
oil and banking industries of financing. The harsh measures were
intended to punish Russia for military interventions in Ukraine and
Syria and for meddling in the 2016 American election to help Donald J.
Trump.
Read more: hanks to Sanctions, Russia Is Cushioned From Coronavirus' Economic Shocks - The New York Times
Paradoxically, however, those
sanctions and the policies Russia enacted in response prepared the
Kremlin for what came this month: a universal dislocation of the global
economy from the coronavirus pandemic and an oil price war that led to a collapse in oil prices and the revenues that Russia relies upon to support social spending.
Far
from being a basket case, Russia enters the crisis with bulging
financial reserves, its big companies nearly free of debt and all but
self-sufficient in agriculture. After Russia was hit with the sanctions,
President Vladimir V. Putin’s government and companies adapted to
isolation and were virtually forced to prepare for economic shocks like
the one hammering the global economy today.
Read more: hanks to Sanctions, Russia Is Cushioned From Coronavirus' Economic Shocks - The New York Times
No comments:
Post a Comment