The western world has always performed its role in international politics. Whenever a country performs an act that violates the said rules they just impose sanctions and try to stop that particular state. However, it is not an infallible action due to some reasons and that can be proved in the case of Russia.
After February 2022, due to the invasion of Ukraine, several sanctions were imposed on Russia with the passage of time, and resultantly, it became the most sanctioned country in the world leaving Iran behind. Now, the question arises that how Russia’s currency is becoming stronger instead of moving towards a downwards slope.
According to “Bloomberg” (an American-based pay television network), Russia’s currency “ruble” had fulfilled 50% owing to sanctions over the Ukraine invasion however, after the decision of President Vladimir Putin on the economy, ruble surpasses Brazil’s currency “Real” as the year’s best-performing currency.
No doubt western countries have imposed sanctions on Russia but still, they are dependent on Russian natural resources significantly on natural gas and oil. Russia is the world’s largest exporter of gas and the second-largest exporter of oil. Its primary customer is the European Union, which has been buying billions of dollars worth of Russian energy per week while on the other hand, trying to punish it with sanctions. That put the European Union in an awkward situation. It also now sent more money to Russia in oil, gas and coal purchases.
Moreover, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a research organization based in Finland, In the Russia-Ukraine war’s first 100 days, the Russian Federation raked in $98 billion in revenue from the export of fossil fuels. More than half of those earnings came from the European Union, at about $60 billion.
Landlocked Countries like; Hungary, which are unable to get oil or gas by sea are totally dependent on direct imports from Russia with the help of Pipelines. Due to these compulsions of the European Union regarding the import of gas and oil Russia has also increased its prices.
Similarly, a new tradition has taken birth in the world; countries have startedtrading in their own currency instead of the dollar, which is considered the world’s strongest currency. One of its examples is Moscow and Delhi’s payment pact, in which India and Russia will trade in Russian currency. Such a type of pact that ignores the trade in dollars is not only alarming for the United States of America but beneficial for its competitor too, which is Russia.
So, as we know today the whole world has been a global village and the countries are interdependent on one other, there are several projects and natural resources like; gas and oil are imported and exported by those countries. Therefore, the overall sanctions of western countries are not affecting Russia however, these sanctions and boycotts seem inoperative at the geo-political level because these role-playing countries sitting around the NATO table have no other better option to import gas and gas and the high prices set by Russia are making Ruble stronger more and more.