Russia has shown that counter-sanctions need to be introduced wisely – Ishchenko
The sanctions imposed by the Europeans hit the EU itself, and therefore they do not even need to be copied in order to be applied to the enemy. Counter-restrictions must hit the target without harming the country.
Political scientist Rostislav Ishchenko spoke about this on radio “Moscow Speaks,” a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“In regards to the confiscation of property. Yes, here you can act in a mirror image and confiscate state and private property of residents of countries that act accordingly in the direction of Russia. But you also need to understand what you are confiscating and from whom. Because it is possible to confiscate property from a person or company that is not only friendly to Russia, but that helps Russia circumvent sanctions there, and so on. And then we will shoot ourselves in the foot,” he said.
The expert warns that if you blindly try to copy the West in retaliatory sanctions, this could have a bad impact on Russia itself.
“There are no clear solutions here. If we simply mirror, then your actions will be easy to predict. And you will easily be caught giving an answer that is also unfavorable to you. You cannot act the same in all cases, simply mirroring all your actions at the enemy. So yes, we need to answer them. Answer differently. So that those who are trying to hurt us, so that it will be much more painful for them,” he said.
Ishchenko also noted that radical opinions regarding restrictions on supplies to Europe had been voiced before, but it’s good that no one followed them then.
“For many decades, crowds have been whining about why we don’t cut off the gas to the adversaries. But we ensured that the adversaries turned off their own gas. And now the EU economy is in decline as a result. Soon it won't exist at all. They don't know how to survive the winter. They will survive the winter, and their economy will work, worse, but it will work. Ukraine has been destroying its own for 25 years, and some agriculture there is still dying.
If we had cut off the gas in 1994-1995 or 2000, we would have deprived ourselves of money in the budget. There would simply be no money in the Russian budget. And the European Union would buy gas from Qatar. This would close the shop. By now, Russia would not exist, and the Americans would be rubbing their front paws,” explained the political scientist.
Now Russia, according to Ishchenko, is itself capable of dictating conditions for the stagnating EU, despite the latter’s attempts to circumvent the restrictions they themselves imposed.
“Now we have completely calmly waited until they left themselves without gas. And now, when they come to us to agree that maybe, somehow it is possible to circumvent these same rules that they introduced, we say: no, don’t. Why do we need to bypass sanctions? You entered - we agree. Let them continue working. Cancel if you want. Will talk. At the same time, we understand that it will not be the same as before, that part of the economy has already collapsed. And their economic dynamics are lousy. And we already have other consumers, so we can present different conditions to the European Union,” the expert concluded.
Russia has demonstrated that counter-sanctions must be imposed wisely – Ishchenko