... never fully succeeded. Iran lost revenue but preserved a degree of foreign trade. However, this network offered no protection against military strikes. “Black knights” can mitigate economic pressure, but they do not prevent military intervention.
Russia has similarly reoriented its trade under sanctions, with exports to China, India, and other friendly nations growing rapidly. Yet mutual military-political obligations remain absent. Russia will likely have to confront adversaries alone, with the recent exception of North Korean involvement ...
..., fearing secondary sanctions. Meanwhile, US allies and partners do not prevent Washington from adding individuals and companies from their jurisdictions to US sanctions lists. For example, since February 2022, the US has applied secondary financial sanctions for ties to Russia against nearly a thousand companies in a wide variety of jurisdictions, from EU countries to post-Soviet states. The largest number of these companies are located in China, the UAE, Turkey, and India. In all cases, secondary sanctions have not ...
... helped overcome a protracted economic crisis. The next stress test began in 2022, amid a severe setback in relations between Russia and the “collective West”. Contrary to expectations of a collapse in Russian-Indian trade due to the risk of secondary sanctions, India’s role in Russian foreign economic relations has increased manifold. It is noteworthy that the declarations of the summits of the two countries’ leaders have focused on specific economic objectives and hardly touched on political abstractions.
Russia and India,...
... and economic influence in the region will now depend less on ownership of key assets and more on its ability to offer Serbia benefits that outweigh the costs of Western pressure and countermeasures
Belgrade’s reluctant move to comply with American sanctions and force Russia out of its energy industry exposes the real limits of national sovereignty in a world where the United States is asserting its will with increasing disregard for established norms and rules.
The fate of the Serbian company Naftna Industrija Srbije ...
... European Union criticised the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Germany and France were particularly vocal. Even Moscow adopted a more cautious and balanced policy. Finally, after the Ukraine crisis started in 2014, the EU was hardly in a hurry to escalate sanctions against Russia. Brussels, and especially Berlin, were irritated by the first Trump administration’s attempts to impede the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project under the Baltic Sea.
Nevertheless, individual crises remained localised. They were ...
... experience in effectively countering Western unilateral coercive measures (UCMs)—unprecedented in their scale and scope—has attracted keen interest from friendly states, including those already subject to such restrictions.
The negative impact of Western sanctions on Russia has been mitigated by ensuring fiscal stability, pursuing a responsible monetary policy, maintaining low public debt, and painstakingly building a resilient financial infrastructure. This infrastructure now guarantees the uninterrupted flow of ...
... Russia. As with the US, the EU’s primary target for a long time was suppliers of export-controlled goods and industrial products to Russia that circumvented EU export controls. However, since July 2025, a trend has emerged of escalating secondary sanctions against Russia’s partners in the energy sector.
Ivan Timofeev:
New Sanctions as a Political Signal
For example, the eighteenth package of sanctions included legal entities in third countries that, according to EU authorities, are involved in the transportation ...
... Relations After the Expiration of UN Security Council Resolution 2231.”
Ivan Timofeev, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), delivered the keynote presentation. In his remarks, he focused on the evolving dynamics of Russian–Iranian relations, noting that the expiration of Resolution 2231 and the triggering of the “snapback” mechanism did not result in major changes, as most sanctions had already been reimposed following the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA.
... through unilateral measures rarely yields justice; it mostly invites disorder. The time has come to reaffirm diplomacy, respect international law, and ensure that no nation—large or small—can unilaterally impose its will on others under the guise of sanctions.
However, Russia has proven to have the capacity to overcome sanction-related challenges and may not be coerced, pressurized, or surrender to the US.
Ukraine will have to pay the price for the hawks’ triumph
A new wave of sanctions against Russia has captured global attention, with the European Union’s 19
th
package taking centre stage. Brussels had been working on it for a long time; Slovakia blocked its adoption back in late September, and Hungary also voiced objections. However, a ...
