After the United States added extra sanctions to Russia, it looks like the European Union will follow suit, vastly limiting the amount of importing and exporting on certain sanctioned goods.
Russia’s billionaire elite is already scared of the government limiting economic options, potentially leading to complete isolation from most of the worlds economies. This could lead to many high profile companies moving away from Russia.
The European Union will block Russia from using banks and Germany, France and the United Kingdom will stop supplying Russia with weapons and military planes. This could vastly limit Russia’s weapons and threat of battle.
Russia does have their own weapons and aircraft manufacturers, meaning if it comes down to it they have their own supply. The issue is making this supply enough to fight a real war, if the Ukraine crisis becomes more than pro-Russian forces.
Currently, the Ukrainian military appear to have stopped the growth of pro-Russian separatist groups and thousands of civilians are fleeing the areas, to escape the conflict. This could lead to a lack of soldiers willing to fight for Russia in the near future.
The requests for European Union sanctions grew after the downed MH17 flight, which killed 298 passengers. The crash site is still under pro-Russian control, but even still investigation teams are pointing to pro-Russian separatists as the culprits.
Sanctions appear to be the most other countries can do in the conflict, any movement by Europe or the US to combat the growth of the pro-Russian separatists could lead to Russia’s own involvement in the war, sending troops into Ukraine.
Right now, it appears to be a war of attrition from both sides, similar to the Cold War. This all comes as Russia looks to tighten up censorship within the country, offering out payments to anyone who can crack TOR (The Onion Router).
The European Union and United States both have more sanctions prepared, in case Russia decides to invade Ukraine. It will be interesting to see how the developments take place, Ukraine has the upper hand right now.
Source: BBC World News
