Over the last year, the United States has launched dynamic and escalating sanctions to hurt Russian President Vladimir Putin and his allies. The moves haven’t prevented Putin from waging war in Ukraine, but they have severely hurt the Russian economy. Even so, according to a forecast from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Russia’s economy is set to expand by 0.3 percent in 2023, even as a country like the United Kingdom sees its GDP shrink.Does this mean sanctions haven’t worked?
FP’s Ravi Agrawal spoke with two experts on sanctions: Agathe Demarais, global forecasting director at the Economist Intelligence Unit and author of Backfire: How Sanctions Reshape the World Against U.S. Interests; and Nicholas Mulder, an assistant professor of history at Cornell University and author of The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War. FP subscribers can watch or read a condensed version of the interview.
Nicholas Mulder explains what’s in the toolbox for countries to use when another country flouts international law and goes rogue.
Watch Agathe Demarais’s answer on what the role of the global south is when Washington thinks through sanctions.
Nicholas Mulder discusses the long-term and short-term impacts of sanctions on Russia.
Agathe Demarais explains why sanctions on Russia are indeed working.
Agathe Demarais
Global forecasting director, Economist Intelligence Unit
Agathe Demarais is the global forecasting director at the Economist Intelligence Unit and the author of Backfire: How Sanctions Reshape the World Against U.S. Interests.
Nicholas Mulder
Assistant professor of history & Milstein faculty fellow, Cornell University
Nicholas Mulder is an assistant professor of history and a Milstein faculty fellow at Cornell University and the author of The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War.
Host
Ravi Agrawal
Editor in chief, Foreign Policy
Ravi Agrawal is the editor in chief of Foreign Policy and a frequent commentator on world affairs on TV and radio. Before joining FP in 2018, Agrawal worked at CNN for more than a decade in full-time roles spanning three continents, including as the network’s New Delhi bureau chief and correspondent. He has shared a Peabody Award and three Emmy nominations for his work as a TV producer, and his writing for FP was part of a series nominated for a 2020 National Magazine Award for columns and commentary. Agrawal is the author of India Connected: How the Smartphone Is Transforming the World’s Largest Democracy. He is a graduate of Harvard University.
