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What are the sanctions on Russia and are they hurting its economy? What are the sanctions on Russia and have they affected its economy?
(21 days later)
The UK government is stepping up sanctions on Russia, by banning diamond imports. The US, UK and EU have announced new sanctions on Russia, two years after its invasion of Ukraine.
It also said more than 60% of President Putin's war chest - about £275bn - has been "immobilised". The measures also marked a week since the death in custody of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
What are sanctions?What are sanctions?
Sanctions are penalties imposed by one country on another, to stop them acting aggressively or breaking international law.Sanctions are penalties imposed by one country on another, to stop them acting aggressively or breaking international law.
They are among the toughest actions nations can take, short of going to war, and can be imposed at very short notice. They are among the toughest measures nations can take, short of going to war.
What are the diamond sanctions? What are the latest sanctions on Russia?
The UK is banning the import of diamonds from Russia. The US set out similar plans to ban Russian diamonds last year and the EU has announced plans to do so. Announcing 500 new sanctions against Russia, US President Joe Biden said they would target Russia's war machine. Export restrictions will be imposed on nearly 100 firms or individuals.
Russia earned more than £4bn in 2021 from diamond exports, the US says. President Biden said the measures would also target people connected with the imprisonment of Mr Navalny, who died in an Arctic penal camp.
Russia earned £4bn a year from diamond exports The UK has frozen the assets of six bosses at the prison and banned them from travelling to the UK.
However, most Russian diamonds are sent to countries like India to be polished, says Hans Merket of the International Peace Information Service think tank. Once they are re-exported, it is hard to tell that they originated in Russia. The UK has also imposed new bans on Russian metal, diamond and energy exports.
As a result, "US sanctions have not been particularly effective", Mr Merket says. A solution could be "through laser inscriptions in diamonds, or through 3D scans", he says. The EU has announced sanctions on 200 organisations and people which it says are helping Russia acquire weapons, or taking Ukrainian children from their homes.
Gold exports, worth £12.6bn ($15.4bn) to Russia in 2021, were also banned by countries including the UK and US last year. The sanctions include companies and individuals involved in shipping North Korean armaments to Russia.
What other sanctions have been placed on Russia? Alexei Navalny: What we know about his death
Financial measures What other sanctions have been imposed on Russia?
Western nations are trying to limit Russia's access to money. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the US, UK and EU, along with countries including Australia, Canada and Japan, have imposed more than 16,500 sanctions on Russia.
The European Union (EU), US, UK and Canada have frozen assets of Russia's central bank in their countries. Their main target has been Russia's money.
Major Russian banks have been removed from the international financial messaging system Swift, delaying payments for Russian oil and gas. Foreign currency reserves worth $350bn (£276bn) - about half its total reserves - were frozen.
The UK has frozen the assets of other Russian banks, and has banned Russian firms from borrowing money. About 70% of the assets of Russian banks were also frozen, the EU says, and some were excluded from Swift, a high-speed messaging service for financial institutions.
The EU has placed limits on the amount Russians can deposit at banks. Western nations have also:
The UK government announced plans for a similar measure in February last year, but in May 2023 it said it would not implement it. banned exports of technology Russia might use for making weapons
The UK government has said the financial sanctions imposed by Western nations have cut off $350bn (£275bn) of Russia's $604bn foreign currency reserves. banned imports of gold and diamonds from Russia
Oil and gas banned flights from Russia
Western nations have tried to cut Russia's income from oil and gas. Measures include: sanctioned oligarchs - the wealthy business people linked with the Kremlin - and impounded their yachts
The EU stopped importing Russian coal and banned refined oil imports Roman Abramovich, former owner of Chelsea FC, is one oligarch who has been sanctioned
The US and UK banned all Russian oil and gas imports Russia's oil industry has been another major target.
Germany stopped the opening of the Nordstream 2 gas pipeline from Russia The US and UK banned Russian oil and natural gas. The EU has banned seaborne crude imports.
In December 2022, the EU and G7 set a maximum price of $60 a barrel for Russian crude oil. The G7 - an organisation of the world's seven largest "advanced" economies - has imposed a maximum price of $60 (£47) a barrel on Russian crude oil, to try to reduce its earnings.
They warned importers that insurers will not underwrite oil shipments if they pay more. Which Western companies have left Russia?
The EU has not imposed sanctions on Russian gas because it relies on it for about 40% of its gas needs. Hundreds of major firms, including McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Starbucks and Heineken, have stopped selling and making goods in Russia.
Can the world cope without Russian oil and gas? However, some still do business in Russia.
Targeting individuals PepsiCo, for example, has been accused of continuing to sell food products in Russia. And the BBC discovered that US cosmetics firm Avon was making goods in a factory near Moscow.
More than 1,000 Russian businesses and individuals have been targeted by the US, EU, UK and other countries. How has Russia evaded sanctions?
They include oligarchs - wealthy business leaders who are thought to be close to the Kremlin - such as former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich. President Vladimir Putin has claimed European sanctions have done Russia no harm, saying: "We have growth, and they have decline."
Roman Abramovich is the former owner of Chelsea FC Russia has managed to sell oil abroad for more than the G7's price cap, according to the Atlantic Council, a US think tank. It says a "shadow fleet" of about 1,000 tankers is used to ship it.
Assets belonging to President Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have been frozen. The International Energy Agency says Russia is still exporting 8.3 million barrels of oil a day - having increased supplies to India and China.
At least 16 superyachts linked to sanctioned Russians have been seized. Russia is also able to import many sanctioned Western goods by buying them through countries such as Georgia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, according to researchers at King's College London.
In New York, Russian aluminium magnate Oleg Deripaska has been charged with violating US sanctions. China has been a vital supplier of alternative hi-tech products to those produced in the West, says Dr Maria Snegovaya from the US think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The UK has stopped the sale of "golden visas", which allowed wealthy Russians to get British residency rights. "China sells it chips and other components it needs to for keep its military production going," she says. "Russia wouldn't be able to pull that off without China's help."
No longer plain sailing in world of megayachts Russian oil getting into UK via refinery loophole
Russian shoppers and businesses hit What support is China giving Russia?
More than 1,000 international companies, including McDonald's, PepsiCo, H&M and Adidas, have stopped working in Russia, What impact have sanctions had on Russia's economy?
Other measures include: In 2022, the first year of the war, Russia's economy shrank by 2.1%, according to the International Monetary Fund.
A ban on the export of dual-use goods - items with both a civilian and military purpose, such as vehicle parts - by the UK, EU and US However, it estimates that Russia's economy grew by 2.2% in 2023 and predicts growth of 1.1% in 2024.
A ban on all Russian flights from US, UK, EU and Canadian airspace Nevertheless, the US Treasury claims sanctions are damaging Russia, having cut 5% from the economic growth it might have had over the past two years.
A ban on the export of luxury goods to Russia But Dr Snegovaya suggests: "Sanctions have not made waging this war sufficiently costly for Russia, and that means it can continue with it for some time to come".
Are sanctions hurting Russia? The US Treasury also says that the war in Ukraine and sanctions have led more than a million people - many of them young and highly educated - to leave Russia.
Western leaders predicted Russia's economy would collapse. After the invasion of Ukraine and first sanctions, prices rose sharply and people took their money out of banks. Russia's government has also been slashing health spending to fund the war in Ukraine, according to the UK's Ministry of Defence.
But the International Monetary Fund believes Russia's economy could grow by 0.7% in 2023. "This mainly hits people in rural areas," says James Nixey of foreign affairs think tank Chatham House. "The government makes cuts there rather than in the major cities, where they might cause uprisings."
This is because Russia is exporting 8.3 million barrels of oil a day - the highest level since April 2020, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The biggest importers are India and China.
However, the IEA says that Russia's earnings from oil and gas exports fell to £6.5bn ($8.1bn) a month in April 2023, from £18.2bn ($22.5bn) because of Western sanctions.
How has Russia reacted?
Russia has banned exports of more than 200 goods from the West, including telecoms, medical, vehicle, agricultural, electrical equipment and timber products.
It is blocking interest payments to foreign holders of government bonds, and banning Russian firms from paying overseas shareholders.
Foreign investors, who hold billions of dollars worth of Russian investments, are banned from selling them.
Correction 25 May 2023: A previous version of this piece incorrectly stated that the UK government had introduced a measure to limit the amount that Russians could keep in UK banks. The government announced on 24 February 2022 that it was doing this but subsequently decided not to.
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