Gref assesses Western sanctions' impact on Russian economy

Western sanctions are not very sensitive for the Russian economy in the short-term, but the country will feel them later, Sberbank CEO German Gref told Rossiya 24 television channel.

"The scale of sanctions is now such that we do not particularly feel them in the short-term, but in the medium and long-term they will affect both our and global economy," Sberbank CEO predicts. "The volume of sanctions that is beginning to work today does not concern only the Russian economy, it’s the U.S.–China, the U.S.–Turkey, Iran, North Korea, etc," Gref noted. "If we put it together into a common and whole, I’m afraid that the world economy will feel all this," Prime agency cited him as saying.

On August 27, U.S. anti-Russian sanctions over Moscow’s alleged involvement in the March poisoning of the Skripal family in the U.K. came into force. The second package of sanctions that can affect lending to Russian corporate bodies could be introduced in November.