EAEU proved floatability despite inevitable sanctions: Kremlin

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Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov pointed out Sunday that the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) has been able to withstand the downward pressure of anti-Russia sanctions on its combined economy.

"Even during these hard times marked by the inevitable impact of sanctions, etc., the EAEU has proved its floatability," Dmitry Peskov indicated in an interview aired on Rossiya 1 television channel.

The Russian spokesperson said that the five-nation union has a sound outlook, stressing that the Russian economy remains entwined with those of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan for the mutual benefit of all.

The EAEU economy comprises 184 million people. It was formed in 2010 to streamline trade in goods and services between the former Soviet republics.

The union’s major trade partner is China, which accounts for more than 84% of traded goods.

US disappointment with low sanction effectiveness against Russia - CNN

It is noteworthy that sentiments of disappointment emerge amongst US officials regarding the lack of "significant effects" resulting from the sanctions imposed on Russia despite expanding according to a CNN report that cited US senior officials.

The report asserted that Washington had expected that the Russian economy would be in a worse state than where it currently stands given that the anti-Russia sanctions have expanded in scope and intensity since the start of the Ukraine war.

One senior US official cited in the report argued that “We were expecting that things like SWIFT and all the blocking sanctions on Russia’s banks would totally crater the Russian economy and that basically, by now going into September, we’d be dealing with an economically much more weakened Russia than the one that we are dealing with.”

Moreover, the official explained that the initial approach towards anti-Russia sanctions led by the US  will be "a mid-to-long term sanctions regime," adding that the reason "is because we wanted to keep pressure on Russia over the long term as it waged war on Ukraine, and we wanted to degrade Russia’s economic and industrial capabilities. So we’ve always seen this as a long-term game."

Insufficient results emerging from anti-Russian sanctions: CNN

Regarding the assessment of the US sanctions strategy against Russia, the US senior official told CNN that "The disconnect between early expectations and reality appears to stem from the fact that many US and western officials underestimated the sky-high revenues Russia would initially reap from rising oil prices, and the willingness of countries like China and India to continue buying Russian oil."

The US official noted that US ally,  Saudi Arabia, also bought Russian crude "for use in its power plants, freeing up its own oil to sell to other countries."

On his part, former US State Department Director of the Counterterrorism Finance and Designations Office, Jason Blazakis, stated that "The United States underestimated it, and we were slow in actually starting to think about deploying sanctions against Russia's energy interests."

Blazakis added that "I think they [US] made that calculation that these sanctions would have heat and hurt the Russian economy very quickly, in ways they clearly misunderstood and overestimated."

Bringing Russia to the bargaining table

He also noted, as cited in the CNN report, that despite making the Russian economy smaller "but not to the extent people had hoped. And certainly not to the point where the Russians were brought to the bargaining table."

The report quoted a US official as saying that "We had been warning Europe for years before the invasion about the need to get away from Russian energy, and they just weren’t willing to do it until it was too late," adding that Russia has moved to weaponize its gas supply and the EU is being driven into a possible recession.

US not ruling out modifying existing sanctions on Russia: WH

It is noteworthy that White House Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby said on Friday that the US will not rule out imposing new sanctions against Russia or modifying existing ones in order to make them more strangling.

During an interview for CNN, Kirby said, "we are constantly revisiting the sanctions regime to make sure that it is having the desired effect on [Russian President] Mr. [Vladimir] Putin and his economy and we have never taken off the table additional sanctions and we haven't taken off the possibility of changing the sanctions regime to, again, impact him in a much more costly way." 

Responding to a question about US officials who are reportedly dissatisfied with the impacts of Western sanctions on the Russian economy, Kirby said that the Biden administration has stated from the start that some sanctions may take time to take effect.

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the US and the EU have multiplied punitive measures to isolate Russia by targeting its banking system and freezing the assets of its leaders and its industries.

Many of the consequences, such as higher gas, electricity, and food prices, have already occurred or will occur. Meanwhile, western citizens are bearing the brunt of the sanctions on Russia, as gas prices are rising in a suffocating manner.