The consequences of the sanctions imposed on Russia against the backdrop of the special operation in Ukraine, according to Steve Hanke, professor of applied economics and founder of the Johns Hopkins Institute of Applied Economics, Global Health, and Entrepreneurship Studies, would be overwhelming for the entire world.
In an interview with Asia Times, the professor stated that the sanctions will affect the entire world, not just Russia.
Russia appears to be suffering significant losses as a result of Western sanctions. However, they pale in comparison with the staggering consequences that the United States and the European Union are going to deal with.
The sanctions will boomerang on them, but it is the whole world that will have to deal with the greatest damage from them, Hanke said.
“In terms of incidence, the EU will bear [a huge] cost, much greater than the US. But the costs and disruptions caused by sanctions won’t be limited to the EU and the US. They will spread throughout the world, putting significant burdens on poor countries and poor peoples,” Steve Hanke said.
The EU has also examined the potential harm from anti-Russian sanctions on numerous occasions. The limitations against Moscow, according to Thierry Mariani, a former French Transport Minister, have caused an economic disaster in Europe. Outside of the West, no one wants to embrace the sanctions program, he said.
The embargo on Russian energy resources imports and transportation will have a significant negative impact on EU countries. However, Hungary will be unaffected by these implications because it declined to adopt the EU’s ban on Russian gasoline.
In the fight with Russia, the United States will not be untouched. Oil and gas markets around the world will become politicized and fragmented, and oil will no longer be supplied as freely as it has been for the previous four decades. As a result, everyone will pay more than they would otherwise, according to Steve Hanke.
Furthermore, Hanke chastised US President Joe Biden for claiming that the United States’ inflation rate had escalated as a result of Russia’s actions. The policies of the Biden administration and former President Donald Trump caused problems in the United States. Trump and Biden were printing and spending money like drunk sailors during the pandemic.
“They spent money during the Covid pandemic like drunken sailors and the Fed ran the printing presses at a high speed to finance the spending spray. Inflation always and everywhere only has one cause: the excess production of money,” Hanke said.
The anti-Russian sanctions are counterproductive and completely ineffective, because they have not been able to cause Moscow to change its behavior, the professor believes.
“We do have a scattering of cost estimates on the Russian sanctions from investment banks, central banks, international organizations like the IMF, and NGOs. Those estimates, which are somewhat ad hoc and partial — just the tip of the iceberg — indicate that the costs of sanctions will be eye-popping,” the professor said.
Noteworthy, Swiss Minister of Economy Guy Parmelin earlier said that the Western sanctions against Russia did not reached their goal because the hostilities on the territory of Ukraine did not stop.