ALEXANDER LINNIKOV ON IMPACT OF ANTI-RUSSIAN SANCTIONS ON EU ECONOMY

On 12/04/2022 Alexander Linnikov appeared on RUSSIA24 in the economic news program with his latest comment on the impact of anti-Russian sanctions and restrictions on the economies of European states. “We believe that rushed decisions of the EU authorities to impose economic sanctions and restrictions on Russia will have a long-term adverse effect on European states themselves. In the recent weeks the average annual inflation rate in the EU reached the unprecedented 6.2%, in some states, like the Check Republic, peaking as high as 10%. It is obvious that restrictions on import of Russian oil, gas and other raw materials have caused sudden growth of the cost of fuel and energy for industrial consumption, thus leading to a rapid increase of prices of all categories of goods – from agricultural products and consumer goods to complex industrial products. Some European countries, like Germany, France, Italy and the Check Republic, are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effect of sanctions due to high dependency on Russian fuels. Also, their industries are closely interconnected and dependent on each other’s products, so failure of certain European companies to meet the demand of their business partners for specific products or components may cause a detrimental domino effect all along the international production chain. Agricultural, metallurgical and machine-building industries will, probably, suffer the hardest. It has already been announced that some of the German, Italian and Check companies may face significant reductions in production volumes or even shutdown. Of course, this brings about undesirable social consequences such as unemployment and significant increase in the cost of living for average citizens and households all over Europe and beyond,” – said the founder of Linnikov & Partners.