Russian Resilience: Sanction Elusion Mechanisms Utilized During the Russo-Ukrainian War

Ana I.S.S. · Journal of Strategic Security (2025) · DOI: 10.5038/1944-0472.18.4.2593

Resumen

Since the 2022 invasion, the United States and the European Union have imposed a wide range of sanctions, including those directed to Russia’s financial industry, central bank, and hydrocarbon exports, among many others. Even though these restrictive measures implied a severe hindrance for the Russian State apparatus, it has been able to sustain both its economic resilience and its war effort in Ukraine. The present article aims to identify and analyze the economic and logistical mechanisms that allowed Russia to elude Western sanctions and sustain its abovementioned dimensions. In this sense, the reach of support of the strategic relations will be determined, as well as how these mechanisms influence present results. This article concludes that, despite the importance of these economic and logistical evasion mechanisms for sustaining economic resilience, the war effort in Ukraine is undermined by limitations of access to crucial technology, a lack of modernization in its military-industrial complex, and over-reliance on foreign exports.

Instituciones: Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola