Anti-Russian Sanctions to Harm Global Economy - Expert

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Western sanctions imposed on Russia over its special military operation in Ukraine, and the European Union's ensuing "financial war" declared against Moscow, will harm the global economy and benefit no one, Paul Poast, an assistant professor in the department of political science at the University of Chicago, told Sputnik.

French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday that the EU will wage a massive "financial war" against Moscow.

"The economic sanctions being imposed on Russia are unprecedented in scale and scope. Given this, they will absolutely do harm to both Russia and the global economy," the expert said.

Anti-Russia sanctions are accompanied by market volatility, rising gas prices and a global "flight to quality" in the strengthening of the dollar, Poast said. Despite the fact that the latter may seem to be good for the United States, it can create certain problems such as "dollar shortage," when investors buy and hold dollars, he explained.

"That could have negative ramifications on the global economy by impeding the transactions that facilitate trade. In the end, this illustrates what Kenneth Waltz said about war, "to ask who won a war is to ask who won the San Francisco earthquake,'" Poast concluded.

On Thursday, Russia began a special operation to demilitarize and "denazify" Ukraine, responding to calls for help from the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics in countering the aggression of Ukrainian troops. The Russian Defense Ministry said the special operation is targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure only and the civilian population is not in danger. Moscow has repeatedly stressed that it has no plans to occupy Ukraine.

In response, the United States, the United Kingdom, members of the European Union and several other countries imposed comprehensive sanctions against Russia. Some of them closed their airspace to all Russian flights, sanctioned a number of Russian banks and officials. They are also seeking to disconnect Russia from SWIFT, and the international payment system confirmed on Tuesday that it will obey the law on sanctions once it gets the legal order.

President of European Commission Ursula von der Leyen called the measures "the largest sanctions package" in EU history. She admitted it "will come at a cost for our economy too," but stressed the need to stand up against "aggression" and "invest" in "freedom and independence."