US should call time on its absurd sanctions

This is an editorial from China Daily.

The disappointment some anonymous senior United States officials have recently expressed to media outlets in the country over the fact that the sanctions imposed against Russia have not had as big an impact on the Russian economy as they hoped is in sharp contrast with the blind optimism Washington displayed when imposing the sanctions.

Indeed, although the Russian economy contracted about 4 percent between April and June, the most difficult period for it, when the sanctions started taking effect, that was much less than the 15 percent some US politicians had predicted.

The soaring energy prices, which were a predictable consequence of the sanctions, have directly boosted Russia's revenue from selling coal, oil and gas — and it is worth noting that even the US is still buying Russian oil through various channels, since as long as it is refined in a third-party country it is no longer considered to be Russian oil.

Not to mention how much European countries are suffering as a result of the reduced supply of natural gas from Russia, and that other US allies, such as India, have not been willing to bet their relations with Russia on the US' proxy war against it in Ukraine, so that instead of reducing their trade with Russia they have chosen to increase it dramatically.

The financial sanctions that Washington declared in a high profile manner have also had a limited effect as Russia and more and more of its major trade partners are using their own currencies to settle their accounts in international transactions, an existing trend that has been accelerated by Washington's sanctions.

The sizable trade and cooperation deals signed between Russia and other countries at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok early this month and the expanded trade and economic cooperation among countries attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, last week, are not because of loopholes in the sanctions but because of Russia's indispensable role in the world economy and trade system, and emerging and developing economies' common demand for post-pandemic recovery through coordinated actions.

Thus the US-led sanctions against Russia, instead of choking Moscow's economy in a short time as anticipated, have increasingly enmeshed the US and its allies, particularly the latter, in a web of their own spinning.

The Ukrainian people are also paying for the US' sanctions as Russia wants to gain more from its "special military operation" in Ukraine to compensate for its sanctions-incurred losses.

With the Ukraine crisis dragging on, it is time for the world to weigh the gains and losses from the US' sanctions regime, which does not have the authorization of the United Nations and generates global spillover effects that only the US is the beneficiary of.