The writer, Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s chief global strategist, is author of ‘The Ten Rules of Successful Nations’
The clamour is growing to ramp up sanctions against Russia, which stands accused of deploying hackers, assassins and other provocateurs abroad, and of repressing dissent at home. But it is worth pausing in this moment of anger to consider that in one crucial respect sanctions have made Russia stronger.
The story begins back in 2014, when Russia suffered the twin shock of falling oil prices and Western sanctions levelled in response to the invasion of Crimea. Russia was accustomed to financial crises, which helped topple its Soviet empire in 1989, wiped out the rouble twice in the 1990s, and struck again in 2008. But the 2014 shocks seemed to persuade president Vladimir Putin that enough was enough.
