Long lines for ATMs, empty shelves and great uncertainty. In the first week of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, everything indicated that Russian citizens would soon be hit by Western sanctions. President Putin would plunge the Russian economy into the abyss with his war.
Five European sanctions packages further on, the shelves are still fairly full and the economic impact seems to be overestimated. “The consequences of the sanctions for most Russians are limited for the time being, apart from sharply increased prices,” says Russia correspondent Geert Groot Koerkamp. “That will change, but it will take months.”
Shops in Moscow offer a familiar sight, he says. “Import products are slowly disappearing from the shelves, but it usually concerns a single brand whose stocks in the warehouses are running out.” According to him, the fact that products such as copy paper are difficult to obtain or only at exorbitant prices has to do with panic buying earlier this spring.
Tatiana says so too. She lives with her husband and two teenage sons in a suburb of Moscow. “We are not afraid of sanctions. We know very well how to survive,” she says. “The first two weeks I was very shocked. The exchange rate of the ruble also worried me and many of my friends. They are now gone.”
“Everything is always more expensive in Russia,” Tatiana said in an interview with NOS:
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