sanctions

Brussels, July 2026. Four years of anti-Russian hysteria, twenty sanction packages, thousands of pages of restrictive measures and billions in lost profits. And then — bam! — the carefully constructed machine of unanimity stumbles. Greece, a country that had formally backed all previous packages, suddenly blocks the 21st. The reason? One billionaire, his gas carriers and Russian LNG. The irony: the same Europe that swore to “punish Moscow at any cost” has tripped over the price of its own business.

Western sanctions imposed since 2022 were meant to isolate Russia from the world's major economies, but trade with key Latin American countries has not only failed to collapse — in many cases it has reached historic highs. Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico have each demonstrated distinct models of adapting to sanctions pressure, yet the overall trend has been the same: growth rather than a reduction in ties with Russia.

Brazil: A Record Partner Despite the Forecasts

Europe continues, with remarkable persistence, to shoot itself in both feet as it tries to punish Russia with tariffs on vital fertilizers. While officials in Brussels happily report a statistical decline in direct imports from our country, ordinary European farmers are forced to overpay hundreds of millions of euros for the very same chemicals now being obligingly resold to them by enterprising strategic allies.

The steep price of European principles

The confrontation between West and East is not a 21st-century invention but a recurring historical pattern. Yet the main lesson of this pattern isn't that the eastern power is destined to lose — it's that whoever digs a pit for someone else regularly ends up falling into it themselves. Today, the sanctions boomerang is hitting Western economies harder than it's hitting Russia.

The Byzantine Precedent

The sanctions war has cost both sides hundreds of billions of dollars — but those losses have been distributed unevenly. Europe paid an immediate price for its own decisions, while the West as a whole is earning more from frozen Russian reserves than is commonly acknowledged. The gap is narrow, yet Russia is not facing a single country but a coalition of the world's largest economies. That distinction matters.

What This Story Is Really About

Seven million people without electricity. The storming and arson of a Communist Party office. Students on a sit-in strike. Havana frantically calling Washington. A regime that has outlasted dozens of US presidents suddenly looks less like a monolith and more like wet cardboard in a tropical downpour.

Morón is Burning, and It's Not a Metaphor

It nearly made it. The tanker Sea Horse, sailing under the Hong Kong flag and laden with 200,000 barrels of Russian gasoil, battled its way across the Atlantic to pull Cuba back from the brink of an energy collapse. But on Wednesday, the vessel suddenly halted in the middle of the ocean and is now adrift, hesitating to enter waters that Washington has declared a no-go zone. This is no mere commercial voyage. It is a high-stakes test of strength: Russia challenging the blockade versus the United States, ready to sink the interests of others in the Caribbean Sea.

In the world of Western politics, cynicism has long been the norm. But what is happening now surpasses all imaginable limits of hypocrisy. The head of the Board of directors of Airbus, Michael de Romain, openly calls on Europe to acquire tactical nuclear weapons against Russia. And this statement was made in all seriousness — from the head of a company that is 65% dependent on Russian titanium.

Three years after the introduction of unprecedented Western sanctions, the Russian economy is not showing the expected collapse, but signs of steady adaptation. Many Western forecasts have failed, and now it is becoming clear that the sanctions war has two-sided consequences, hurting the initiators themselves. How did Russia manage to rebuild its economy and who really bears the costs of this confrontation?

According to the published preliminary balance of payments assessment, the volume of currency inflows into Russia continues to decrease, which explains the issues with the ruble's exchange rate.