EU-Russia relations: the impact of sanctions against Russia in the Ukraine crisis context : Relations UE-Russie : l'impact des sanctions contre la Russie dans le contexte de la crise ukrainienne

This paper aims to determine the effects of EU sanctions on the Russian economic crisis and the motives behind the issuance of the sanctions in the first place. This paper shows that Russia’s economy witnessed a short recession from the end of 2014 onwards. The analysis of its economic performances indicates that the oil prices crisis hit Russia far more than what would have been expected, decreasing its economic growth, exports and imports, and triggered a sharp depreciation of the ruble. The reason behind it is that Western sanctions prevented banks and businesses to use Western financial markets to refund their debts and counterbalance the economic shock of the oil price crisis.