“The sanctions affected more at the beginning, because it caused inflation in March, in April, but since then the inflation has been absorbed and we haven’t seen any particular problems [in Russia].”
The expert also noted that Russia, one of the biggest producers and suppliers, cannot a priori have a “resource famine”.
“Russia produces everything it needs, in fact. There can be no hunger in Russia. The only problem is semiconductor production, but that’s a problem the world over, not just in Russia.”
The West, for its part, has put its own obstacles in the way and can no longer, because of its own actions, control and restrict Russia:
“[With Russia disconnected from SWIFT,] the West no longer has any way of tracking the goods Russia ships to its trading partners.”
According to the French expert, Russia is too developed country for the current restrictions to hinder its development:
“At the beginning of the special military operation, everyone was surprised, but today everything is back to normal. Vladimir Putin has continued to implement all the major projects. Russia is a hyper-industrialised country”
Referring to the conduct of the special military operation, Moreau noted Moscow’s “Caring” tactics and also mentioned an interesting trend in Western military aid to Ukraine:
“The fact that Russia abandoned Kherson, which could have been defended quite easily, means that the country’s leaders are trying to minimise casualties among soldiers.”
“It’s also to be mentioned that NATO sent more tanks to Ukraine in the spring of 2022 than it does today. And this is the trend for all types of munitions.”
