EU Lacks Leverage Over Russia Even with New Sanctions: Le Parisien

The eighteenth package of sanctions is unlikely to have a significant impact on Russia, as Europeans no longer possess special leverage to pressure the country, and the promised "collapse of the Russian economy" has not occurred. This opinion was expressed by David Tertre, a lecturer at the Catholic Institute of Higher Studies, in a commentary for Le Parisien.

“The country has reorganized itself by conducting trade and exchanges with major developing countries that, for various reasons, do not wish to apply Western sanctions,” Tertre explained his position.

According to him, the accepted packages of sanctions have already fulfilled their function, and the “collapse of the Russian economy” that former French Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire talked about in 2022 has not happened.