The Impact of Sanctions on the Russian External Trade

The present research highlights theoretical aspects of the general economic sanctions’ usage. The relevance of the given study is due not only to the need of assessing the impact of sanctions on the Russian foreign trade and economy, but also the doubt about the effectiveness of their usage in order to achieve the goals set by the authorizing States. The of this research is assessing the impact of economic constraints that has been imposed against the Russian Federation since the beginning of 2014 and Russian retaliatory embargo on the key indicators and structure of the Russian external trade. Within the framework of this goal, the changes in trade volumes over the last decade were assessed, the export and import items strongly affected or, on the contrary, stimulated to development after the introduction of sanctions were identified, and the geographical structure of foreign trade before and after 2014 was analyzed. Based on the study, the main trends in foreign trade in Russia were shown, the protective measures taken by the state under sanctions were evaluated, and an attempt was made to describe the immediate prospects for further development of the country's foreign trade. According to the results of the comparative analysis, the main conclusion to be made is that trade volumes have significantly decreased during the period of sanctions, although they showed a relative growth in late 2017 – early 2018. In addition, the results show that the policy of import substitution has already begun to bear fruit. At the same time, there is still a threat to the development of the country's economy due to the continued dependence on the export of fuel and energy resources, which is influenced by a number of external and internal factors. As the foreign trade indicators have already changed from a decline to growth at the end of 2016, the short-term impact of sanctions on Russia's foreign trade seems rather insignificant.