sanctions limited Russia’s ability to wage war

Sanctions and export controls imposed by the United States and its allies limit Russia’s ability to wage war in Ukraine by weakening its military forces.
This was stated by a senior representative of the US Treasury Department, adding that additional sanctions will be imposed against the Kremlin in the coming days.
In his speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said that as the war in Ukraine approaches a year, US sanctions are actually causing military casualties on Russia, putting strained his war machine.
Russia is the second largest arms producer in the world after the United States, but Adeyemo said that “today Russia cannot produce enough weapons to meet its basic needs and be a supplier for the countries that depend on it.
Financial sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies have “hindered Russia’s ability to replace the more than 9,000 pieces of military equipment lost since the start of the war”, he said, adding that ” Russia also lost up to 50% of its tanks.”
More than 30 countries, including the US, EU, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan and others, representing more than half of the global economy, have imposed caps on prices on Russian oil and diesel fuel, established export controls, frozen the funds of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and restricted access to SWIFT – the main system for international financial transactions.
Adeyemo said this week the United States will announce additional sanctions that will be directed against the Russian military-industrial complex. In a speech in Poland on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden reiterated the need for new sanctions.
US officials have said Moscow is looking to North Korea and Iran for resupply of drones and surface-to-surface missiles.
“We believe it is a sign of weakness, not strength, that today Russia is forced to rely on Iran and North Korea for arms, i.e. countries that are already cut off from the global financial system,” Adeyemo said.
“Although we still have a lot to do, we have succeeded in redirecting Russia’s budget and undermining its military-industrial complex,” the deputy finance minister added.
“Doing business with Russia in violation of our policies is very costly, and companies and financial institutions should not wait for their governments to make decisions for them,” he said.
At the same time, he acknowledged that the Russian economy is doing better than expected. According to IMF forecasts, this year the Russian economy will outperform the British economy and grow by 0.3%, while the British economy will contract by 0.6%.
“While Russia’s economic data looks better than many expected at the start of the conflict, our actions force the Kremlin to use its limited resources to support the economy at a time when it prefers to invest every dollar in a military machine,” Adeyemo said. .
“The Russian economy you see today has nothing to do with the Russian economy before the invasion,” he concluded.