Ten more years of sanctions

Sanctions against Russia are likely to stay in place for at least the next 10 years, the country’s second-largest oil company has said, at a time of sharply deteriorating relations between Moscow and the west, Financial Times reports. 

Russian oil and gas companies should prepare for long-term restrictions, Lukoil’s chief executive said, while also backing the extension of a deal between Russia and Opec to reduce crude output if oil prices fall below $50 a barrel. 

“Our current strategic plan for the next 10 years is that sanctions will remain in place,” Vagit Alekperov told the Financial Times. “I don’t perceive that sanctions will be removed in the coming years, and even [when they are] it will be a lengthy and very complicated process.” 

As professor at the department of stock market and investments at the Higher School of Economics, Alexander Abramov, said in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza, in this scenario, the biggest negative factor for the Russian economy is restriction on borrowing capital and technologies.

"Actually, it's hard to predict how will these two factors affect Russia's economic growth in a 10 years period. According to existing estimates, they will affect GDP growth by about 0.5-1%. However, the influence of these two factors can become more significant in the future," he said.

"In this situation, the country must first focus on internal sources of development, on domestic capital," he noted.

An associate professor of the Graduate School of Corporate Management of RANEPA, Ivan Kapitonov, stressed that our economy has already adapted to sanctions.

"We need to understand that it won't become worse for sure. As for what Alekperov said, it is quite expected that sanctions will last another 10 years, maybe even more. But we have already passed the lowest point of the crisis, only development awaits us," he said.