Russian ambassador admits sanctions have little impact, trade continues
Andrey Kelin, Russia's ambassador to the United Kingdom, gave an interview to Sky News. With disarming honesty, he admitted that Russia's trade with Europe has decreased by 98 percent. "Is this good for us? For us, it means nothing."
Many of the reports shared by Russian media and government representatives are likely not true. Such reports may be part of an information war orchestrated by the Russian Federation.
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Europe and the United States have imposed numerous sanctions on the Russian Federation. However, as found in an investigation by journalist Ed Conway from Sky News, there are significant gaps in the system that was supposed to limit British companies from trading with Russia.
In reality, the flow of Russian gas continues to generate substantial revenues for the Kremlin's war machine. Russian ambassador Andrey Kelin in the United Kingdom is fully aware of this.
Business is business; there is no politics here. (...) Revenues from trade with the rest of the world are incomparably higher than what we get from trading with Europe. Trade with the United Kingdom is reduced to 2 percent. Is this good for us? For us, it means nothing. But it's very bad for the United Kingdom - said Kelin.
In the further part of the interview, the Russian diplomat pointed out that the sanctions from Europe and the United States did not work. He lists three main goals of the restrictions.
- The goal of the sanctions was primarily to disrupt the normal lives of Russians so that they would say that Putin is wrong. The second point of the sanctions aimed to harm the Russian economy as much as possible. The third point was to change the political leadership. None of these goals were achieved by the sanctions – lists the ambassador.
Despite strained relations, Europe still depends on Russia for about 15 percent of its gas supplies. This means that since 2022, Russia has received approximately £8 billion from the West.
