Geopolitics

This article will be dedicated to sanctions in Russia.
The first sanctions were taken jointly by Europeans, Canada and the USA in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea in Ukraine by the Russians. These sanctions took the form of banning some exports to Russia, and aimed at weakening the Russian economy and army. The main sanctions banned European and American companies and citizens
- to sell weapons or equipment to the Russian army,
- to export to Russia equipment or high-technology in order to extract or produce oil, gas and energy
- to finance or invest in projects in Russia using American dollar.
The sanctions strengthened overtime, with the fight in eastern Ukraine, the support of the Russian government to Bashar Al Assad ...

Consequently, the Russian economy experienced a short recession in 2014, which was aggravated by the drop in the price of oil, on which the Russian economy is really dependent. The value of the ruble dropped from 33 to 60rub for an American dollar to the price of a barrel of oil fell from 110 $ to 60 $, many projects were given up (for example, the French company Total withdrew from the project shtokman development aiming Gasprom) and the GDP decreased by 4% from 2014 to 2015.
Russia responded to these sanctions by imposing an embargo on a wide range of agricultural products from western countries. It enabled Russia to find new partners in Asia and to develop its agricultural capacities.

Really recently, in January 2018, Americans had drawn a list of Russian companies and oligarchs that would be sanctioned first if something happened on the side of Russians. On the 6th of April 2018, Americans announced that they were adding new sanctions and sanctions to those responsible for assaulting Syria. Among these companies can be counted many producers and producers (gasprom, lukoil, rosneft). It has been broken up in the financial market, and the ruble fell from 69 to 78 rubles for 1 €. The Russian company Rusal, which provides 6% of the world demand for aluminum also lost 50% of its value in stock exchange. Eventually the sanctions were not set in place because Trump would not be allowed to negotiate some issues with Vladimir Putin, such as actions in Syria.

These sanctions, which have been implemented by Europeans, have recently been criticized by Europeans as adding new unilateral sanctions to Russia, and as European companies are sued by Americans when they do not respect the sanctions. For example, in 2015, Americans asked for $ 8.9 billion to BNP Paribas for having some transactions with Russia using the American Dollar.

The sanctions still in place today had various effects: they limited the expansion of the Russian economy and foreign investment in Russia, they enabled the United States to develop a new relationship between the two countries, and they weakened the relations between Europeans and Americans.