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Commentary | 28 June 2024

The Women Leaders Podcast: It’s the economy, stupid – and sanctions

Defence Diplomacy Eastern Europe Economy Energy EU Europe Foreign policy International Law Podcasts Russia Russia-West Relations Sanctions Ukraine

The focus on the defence in regard to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine often draws attention from the economic war taking place in parallel. Every few weeks, the US or the EU drop another packet of sanctions on Russia in an attempt to hinder its capacity to pursue the war — and in absolute lockstep, a wave of analyses, data, and disinformation will appear, largely rubbishing the sanctions and their effects. In this way, the EU this week dropped its 14th round of sanctions, and Russia put out another series of messages about the EU harming itself more than Russia. It is a vicious cycle that largely obfuscates not only the success of sanctions but also the broader economic picture of the war — and beyond.

To wade through the data and make sense of them, Ilana Bet-El welcomes back Agathe Demarais, Senior Policy Fellow for Geoeconomics at the ECFR and the woman who literally wrote the book on sanctions! Going over economic measures and countermeasures, they tease out in the clearest terms the broader economic context of the war against Ukraine, as well as the realities of the global economic situation and its future, from demography to corporate interests.

As they say in Cabaret: That clinking, clanking sound / Can make the world go ‘round!

This episode was recorded on June 18 2024.

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The opinions articulated above represent the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the European Leadership Network or all of its members. The ELN’s aim is to encourage debates that will help develop Europe’s capacity to address the pressing foreign, defence, and security policy challenges of our time.

Image credit: Florence Ferrando

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