Are sanctions frightful the Russian economy?

After the annexation of Crimea to Russia, the leaders of many countries, especially Europe and the United States, started talking about the introduction of political and economic sanctions, which should harm the reputation of the state, the Russian economy and signal the disagreement with the policy towards Ukraine. But in fact it was only announced a ban on the entry and arrest of accounts of a number of EU and U.S. officials (who should not have foreign accounts and real estate by law), and businessmen; program of EU (including the introduction of a visa-free regime), NATO and the G8 were suspended; some countries have announced the termination of military cooperation. Sometimes it came to the point of absurdity, when NASA announced the freezing of all contacts with Russia, except for delivering astronauts to the ISS, and military experts from Russia has been said about the impossibility of their visit to NATO headquarters.

The most noticeable were measures against a number of Russian credit institutions, including the Bank of Russia, as well as suspension of card accounts service of their clients by world leading payment systems (Visa and MasterCard); international rating agencies have reconsidered the assessment of key companies’ shares in the country to "negative."

Barack Obama's statement that the U.S. will soon fully meet Europe's demand for energy resources and thereby reduce dependence on supplies from the continent of Russia, was perceived cautiously by the majority of experts.

At present, Russia is the third largest partner of the EU bilateral trade (after the U.S. and China). For Europeans at low rates of growth in their own economies and the more instantaneously from its energy, seems unproductive and unlikely to refuse the results achieved. Such a policy of isolation is not beneficial to all parties.

Sanctions taken had the opposite effect. Russia got down to practical implementation of the national payment system, which initially will be able to cover all the internal settlement and will be protected from external influences; and Chairman of the Federation Council V. I. Matviyenko said about the necessity to developing the establishment of a national rating agency.

Certainly, recent events have made their impact on the Russian economy - there was a drop of the MICEX index, even more pressure is putting on the ruble and inflation, the position of the United States and the European Union in the future deters many potential investors, and trade with neighboring Ukraine for the year will significantly reduce. But there is no point to dramatize the situation: political strife will blow over, and the country will begin to understand that it is necessary to pay more attention to the industrial policy of the state, diversify markets, and develop relations with other countries.