“There was no shortage.” Western media looked at supermarket shelves in Russia

The economic sanctions and the withdrawal of many large companies from Russia brought no results for Moscow, which continues to “hold”, the French television channel claims. France info.

“Getting into a supermarket in Moscow is the same as entering any other Western supermarket. Shelves are well stocked.

Customers can easily find French products or bottles of wine from Europe. The famine that some Russians feared a few months ago did not happen, the channel’s correspondents said.

“There are lost goods, but they have been replaced,” one of the Russians says in the story.

Another interlocutor of the journalists said, “I will not lie to you, everything is there.”

“The Russian economy appears to be resisting economic sanctions nearly six months after the start of the war in Ukraine. This year GDP will fall by -4% and not the expected -8%. Russian companies manage to circumvent restrictions. For example, a mechanic buys Chinese parts instead of the usual French parts. “Russian airlines collect parts from other planes to repair their own planes.”

Western sanctions against Russia didn’t work?

Against the background of the continuation Russian special operations in Ukraine More and more politicians, experts, and officials are expressing their concerns that Western sanctions against Russia are not having the expected effect, he writes. National Interest.

According to data published by Rosstat, the Russian economy shrank by 4% year-on-year in the second quarter. While the drop was significant in absolute terms, it was not as steep as some observers had expected.

“June data shows that the recession in the Russian economy appears to have bottomed out as the situation stabilizes in some sectors.”

– leads Reuters Evaluation by Sergei Konygin, economist at Sinara Investment Bank.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in July that the EU’s sanctions strategy against Russia had failed.

» The Central Bank of the Russian Federation took swift action to protect the ruble from US and EU financial restrictions. The ruble did not turn into “rubble”, as US President Joe Biden said in March, and this year it has become one of the strongest currencies in the world, ”says the NI columnist.

Parallel import and fake

Despite Moscow’s unprecedented macroeconomic moves to counter the sanctions, Yale University data shows that more than 1,000 companies are “restricting” their activities in Russia.

“While the Western-led withdrawal of funds from Russia may seem staggering in scope, the reality on the ground is much more complex. According to a recent report DWThe Russian authorities have successfully implemented a wide variety of “parallel import” schemes.

From Levi’s jeans to the iPhone, a large number of regular and high-end items are still available for purchase, although these manufacturers no longer supply them directly to the Russian market.

Such goods often enter Russia through unauthorized importation from organizations established in the countries of the former USSR, including Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia. Moscow opened the doors to such activities by removing restrictions on the resale of many goods purchased abroad. These transactions, also known as gray market sales, have totaled $6.5 billion since May and are expected to reach $16 billion by the end of the year, Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said.

The author claims that other products and services are still available through rebranding and counterfeiting.

“McDonald’s and Starbucks, which ceased operations in Russia, were replaced by successor companies offering almost identical products with similar brands. Courts are often quick to smash such blatant attempts at counterfeiting, but the Russian legal system is not welcoming to claims of patent and copyright infringement by Western companies in a time of unprecedented hostility between Russia and the West.

“Leave the War Machine On”

The columnist believes that the biggest long-term challenge to the West’s campaign to put pressure on Russia is probably that the world’s major economic powers not only refuse to join the Washington-led sanctions regime, but continue to deepen their trade. Financial relations with Moscow. “Both India and China have increased the pace of energy imports from Russia in the last six months. There were credible reports that the first was selling refined Russian oil to European and US importers.

Russia’s energy export earnings have risen since the West’s sanctions flurry earlier this year.

follows from the text.

According to experts, the consequences of sanctions against Russia may appear only years later. But even so, there is no guarantee that the projected recession will occur on a scale sufficient to starve the Kremlin war machine or otherwise cause meaningful positive changes in Russian foreign policy. Driven by the belief that its existential interests depend on victory in Ukraine, Moscow believes it can outlast the West, both economically and on the battlefield. So far, Russia has been able to largely soften the blow of the sanctions and is transforming its strategy in Ukraine from trying to quickly seize 16 major cities to a bleeding war for Ukrainian forces in a debilitating war of attrition.

Russian spending increased

Against this background, the Russian economic confidence index “moved” into negative territory, according to a study by the holding. “Romir”.

The average weekly expenditure of Russians increased by 2.8% to 5,424 rubles. In annual dynamics, the indicator grew by 2.9%.

The index of the average bill for the week also increased: the average cost of one purchase amounted to 673 rubles. Compared to the same period of the previous year, the index increased by 5%.