"There are oil and gas, and there is another very important story — about money."
The very first response of Western governments to support Ukraine after the start of a full-scale invasion was the introduction of a series of sanctions aimed at denying Russian energy carriers and freezing the elites' assets. More than a year of aggressive hostilities on the territory of our country has passed, and here is what we get in the end from the numerous sanctions packages statement.
1. Fairly moderate restrictions on oil prices and the presence of Western companies in the Russian energy market.
2. No sanctions for the gas purchase!
3. No decisive actions toward the expropriation of the Russian elites' capital.
We invited the British historian and energy researcher Simon Pirani to find out why all three fronts of the West's economic war with Russia turned out to be so weak.
Listen to his thoughts in the new episode of our podcast.
The "Too Long, Didn't Read" podcast is a series of interviews with the authors of the 'Commons' journal discussing their articles, research, as well as their academic, journalistic, and activist experiences during the full-scale Russian invasion.