Already on the verge: Kremlin risks running out of money due to new EU sanctions

New EU sanctions, including the ceiling price for oil, will force the Kremlin to either reduce funding for the military-industrial complex or cut social projects for Russians, which will cause discontent and protests within the country.

This opinion was expressed on the air of “Pryamoy” by Vadym Chernysh, chairman of the board of directors of the Center for Security Studies “SENSS”.

“Let’s hope that the sanctions package will work, and this signal will be correctly perceived by Indian and Chinese companies. The general situation on the oil market may become such that the Russians will experience a shortage of funds at such a price – conditionally $47. This will not be bad for us. Russia will not receive a significant part of the funds and will be forced to reduce funding for the military-industrial complex. By the way, Putin said about this, that in the coming years they will reduce funding,” Chernysh noted.

Otherwise, according to him, the Kremlin will be forced to withdraw funds from social spending, which will cause serious social protests within the country.

“We are already close to the point where serious social protests may arise. The main aspect of this reduction is the so-called state projects. Putin created a system of state projects, through which they demonstrated that they were pouring money into everything from the federal budget. But now the Russians have curtailed a huge part of these federal state projects, through which they promoted themselves. Now they can be curtailed altogether if the sanctions take effect… And then the Russians will feel that they have to curtail entire programs. There will be no procurement of medicines in the healthcare sector, and the costs will be shifted to patients. This may shake the faith of Russians in Putin and the federal government,” the expert explains.

At the same time, he emphasized that the United States would also play an important role, and it would be wise to join such sanctions.

“The mechanism for complying with sanctions will be complete if law enforcement and intelligence agencies of European states are involved in this process. It is desirable that the United States also join this. The next stage can be to talk to Trump and his administration so that these mechanisms are involved in countering gray or black trade in oil and petroleum products,” Vadym Chernysh added.

As a reminder, the European Union has approved the 18th package of sanctions against Russia . The package includes new restrictions for more than 20 banks, a dynamic adjustment of the oil price ceiling, and sanctions against the shadow fleet and the Nord Stream pipelines. The European Union notes that this is the most stringent package of restrictions.

At the same time, the UK joined the EU’s energy sanctions against Russia. London reduced the ceiling price for Russian oil from $60 to $47 per barrel . The new restrictions were announced simultaneously by the British and EU governments as part of a coordinated strategy to put economic pressure on the Kremlin.

As reported by “Pryamiy”, on June 20, Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin made a series of cynical statements regarding the course of the war with Ukraine. He made it clear that he planned to seize all of Ukraine , because he considers it “ours”, that is, “Russian”. Putin also cynically said that the Russian Federation has an “old rule: wherever a Russian soldier steps, it is ours”.

At the same time, according to political scientist Vadim Denysenko, with his threats, Putin once again demonstrated that he is not going to stop the war against Ukraine, but we should not talk about decades, but about the prospects of the coming years, because the Russian economy can no longer withstand such a load .

Meanwhile, Russia is experiencing an acute shortage of labor in many sectors of the economy. “This problem is observed in industry, agriculture, energy, etc. But construction suffers the most from the shortage of personnel. According to Russian experts, in 5-7 years there will simply be no one to build in the Russian Federation,” the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine reported.

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