Russia is winning at Economic, Political and Defence Fronts

After Ukraine crisis America and Europe imposed worst sanctions against Russia. The objectives of these sanctions were to isolate Russia, to hit worstly its economy, to limit its advancement and to refrain it to play any active role in global politics and power game. Did these sanctions and other measures proved effective? The reality is quite different. The reality is that Russia is gaining and Europe is severely hit by its efforts to isolate Russia and to impose sanctions on it. Russia has exhibited resilient; the best one can be imagined in the world. Pier Oliver, The Chief Economist of IMF said,” The Russian Central Bank and the Russian Policy makers have been able to stave off a banking panic or financial meltdown when the sanctions were imposed”. It has been clear now that European economy bitterly dependent on Russia. Europe is depending on Russian gas. Russia has cut its gas production to 20% and if this cut is continue in winter it would be disastrous for European economy and life in Europe would be miserable. Gazprom exports gas to Europe via Nord Stream pipeline. Europe has lost 80% of Russian gas supply in recent days. PJSC Gazprom is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation in Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. It is ranked as the largest publicly listed natural gas company in the world and the largest company in Russia by revenue. Russia supplies a significant volume of fossil fuels to European countries and it was the largest exporter of oil and natural gas to the European countries and 40% of gas consumed in the Europe came from Russia, In 2022 Russian export of gas dropped to 15%. Nord Stream is the biggest gas pipeline between Russia and Western Europe and has been operating since 2011. Despite it offering reassurances, Russia could decide to cut off gas flows to Europe this winter, sending Germany into recession and triggering a further soaring of prices of food and energy already inflated by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Germany which is Europe’s largest economy and is desperately depending on Russian gas about a third of its supplies and has been racing to fill its gas storage facilities before gas is needed to heat homes this winter.
Russia has said it is not interested in cutting gas supply to Europe however Europe should reconsider its illegal sanctions and if this continued these sanctions would hurt them badly. Besides Germany Finland, Denmark, Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Bulgaria, Italy and France are also depend on Russian gas and are affected by their own imposed sanctions.

If Russia cuts gas supply to Russia:-
Country Fall in economic output %
Hungary 6.5
Italy 5.7
Austria 3.00
Germany 3.00

The proposal by European Union to cut 15% gas demand is opposed by Poland, Greece, Cyprus, Malta and Ireland. Hungary’s diplomat visited Moscow to negotiate gas supplies to his country. It means Europe is divided on the issue. If Europe choose alternate like LNG it is expensive besides there is no pipeline between Europe and America and Europe will depend supply by ships which is time consuming besides supply may not be enough to deal with shortage.
Besides this world’s all major currencies have been declined. German economy is on the brink of recession and it is considering gas rationing. German business confidence deteriorated to the worst level. It hardly raised its head against the Covid Pandemic and now another crisis it is facing. Germany is the biggest economy of Europe and its economic downturn affects the whole Europe.
Recently President Vladimir Putin visited Iran where he met with Turkish president Recap Tayyap Erdogan and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. In his first trip outside the Russia since the Ukraine crisis emerged, Russia’s president received endorsement for the Ukraine war, with Iran’s supreme leader claiming NATO would have eventually started the conflict. He also supported Putin's aims in Ukraine, with the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei saying at the trilateral summit that the West opposes an “independent and strong” .Russia. Khamenei echoed past claims by Putin that NATO -- which he called a "dangerous creature" -- would have eventually attacked Russia.“NATO would know no bounds if the way was open to it, and if it was not stopped in Ukraine, it would start the same war using Crimea as an excuse," he was quoted as saying on his website after meeting with Putin in Tehran. This was a big success for Russia.
Iran and Russia's national energy companies - National Iranian Oil Company and Gazprom; signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) this week. According to the deal Gazprom will be involved in the extraction of oil and gas at several sites across Iran potentially worth $40 billion. This is another big achievement of Russia besides there is news that Russia will purchase Iranian drone. Russia and China held first military exercise since Ukraine crisis and this was a quantum step to cooperation between Russia and China on defence sector. This joint exercise paved the way for further enhancement of defence ties between China and Russia. The International Army Games is an annual Russian Military sports event organized by the Ministry of Defence of Russia. The event which was first staged in August 2015, involved close to 30 countries taking part in dozens of competitions over two weeks in the most skilled war games. According to the Russian Ministry of Defence, The International Army Games (IAG) 2022 would be held from August 13 to 27 as scheduled, and as of now, a total of 275 teams from 37 countries and regions have confirmed their participation in this unique event. These games would be held in the territories of 12 countries including Belarus and Iran. A Chinese team comprising tanks and vehicles would attend this event.
In a nut and shell, European sanctions did not produced the desired results and they fail to isolate Russia, kneel down its economy , in contrast Russian economy is doing well, its currency is the best performing in the world and Russia is fully capable to defend its borders and to maintain its sovereignty.