BERLIN, August 10. /TASS/: Russia has won a partial victory in its economic confrontation with the West, having achieved growth in revenues from energy exports, despite Western sanctions. This is according to observers of the German newspaper Handelsblatt.
The publication cites calculations by the Bloomberg agency, according to which Russia's revenues in July 2023 increased by 5.3% year-on-year and amounted to $8.66 billion.
"For the Kremlin, this is a partial economic victory over the West. For Washington and the EU, it is an alarming sign: in July, Russia <...>, despite Western sanctions, saw an increase in government revenues from oil and gas exports," Handelsblatt observers wrote.
Russia is earning "more from energy exports and thus is in a better position than a few months ago," Giovanni Staunovo, a commodity analyst at the Swiss bank UBS, told the publication.
According to Robin Brooks, chief economist at the Institute of International Finance (IIF), sanctions "can be very effective when used against countries with current account deficits." Such states depend on obtaining loans from foreign investors on the global capital market to finance imports. As the economist notes, Russia is not among such countries.
According to the newspaper, as prices for Russian energy carriers rise, "doubts about [the usefulness] of EU sanctions are growing."
Gas prices are slowly rising, exceeding $350 per 1,000 cubic meters. Gazprom’s gas supplies to Europe in transit through Ukraine amount to 42.3 million cubic meters per day through the Sudzha station.
