Russian Energy Industry Under the Western Sanctions

The article deals with the features and some implications of the so-called “third wave” of economic sanctions imposed by the European Union (EU) and the United States on the Russian oil and gas industry. Particular importance is attached to analyzing the state and the influence of long-standing problems of the Russian energy branch before the West embraced its sanction policy. The author considers particular sanctions and draws conclusions about their effect on the longterm development of the Russian economy, emphasizing the resulting investment shortages. In the short term sanctions hardly affect the Russian oil and gas industry as the restrictions on technology transfer are less detrimental, than the financial sanctions. However, cooperation with China is unlikely to mitigate the challenge. On the contrary, Russia could suffer substantial losses in the long term as the West blocks the development of oil and gas fields in the Arctic and Western Siberia. Still, it creates an opportunity to advance the national industry, given Russia is able to  mobilize its inner resources. Interstate trade statistics show that sanctions are a double-edged sword. The USA is suffering less than the EU as its bilateral trade with Russia is not as substantial as that of the EU. Anyway, western countries do not seem to be fully aware of implications of their steps in the mid and long term, especially, as regards their own interests. Western sanction policy considerably affects American and European transnational corporations that are doing business in Russia. Damaging the Russian oil and gas industry by depriving it of modern technologies will have a negative impact on the whole world energy market.

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