Western Economic Sanctions Against Russia: Effectiveness and the Necessity of Secondary Sanctions
Author : Davit Osepashvili 23/07/2026
The academic assessment of economic coercion underpins this study, which examines the structural effectiveness of Western economic sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation between 2022 and 2025 amidst global political and economic instability. The study relies on a qualitative research design, specifically utilising documentary and comparative analysis. The analysis is empirically grounded in data and reports from prominent international financial and energy institutions (IMF, World Bank, IEA), operationalising policy effectiveness through four primary channels: financial blockade, trade-logistical diversion, energy embargo, and technological export controls. The primary findings demonstrate that sanctions have significantly reduced Russia's integration with Western markets, raised transactional costs, and generated critical technological deficits. Concurrently, however, a highly institutionalised sanctions evasion ecosystem has expanded, characterised by the "shadow fleet", re-exports through third countries, and alternative financial channels. Furthermore, global economic shocks—namely energy and food inflation—have increased political costs for sanctioning states and weakened enforcement mechanisms due to the strict neutrality maintained by the Global South. The study concludes that public perceptions of "ineffectiveness" stem primarily from misaligned, maximalist expectations of immediate macroeconomic collapse. In reality, sanctions function as instruments of long-term structural constraint rather than rapid behavioural change, and enhancing their subsequent effectiveness critically requires the rigorous enforcement of secondary sanctions.
Keywords: Sanctions, Russia, Global instability, Energy embargo, Export controls, Economic coercion.
Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.55367/GZXF6838