EU Special Envoy for Sanctions David O'Sullivan said that the Russian economy's medium-term outlook is very poor. Sanctions will have a significant impact next year.
"The problem is this is more a slow puncture than a blowout of the tire," he said.
According to him, it will take a bit longer to influence Russia's behavior than some people might have thought at the very beginning.
"But it is going to show and I think most economists would converge that sometime next year, in the course of next year, Russia is going to have some kind of economic reckoning," O'Sullivan predicts.
As the EU representative noted, this does not necessarily align with the timeframe of the ongoing war.
"Ukrainian people are dying every day, and we acknowledge that. That's why the other forms of assistance are so vital, military assistance, of course, first and foremost air defense, and macroeconomic assistance, to help Ukraine's economy continue to function," he added.
David O'Sullivan stated that sanctions seriously impact Russia and will become increasingly evident over time. According to him, Putin has been forced to consume the Russian economy. Moscow is compelled to spend more and more on the war: 30% of Russia's state expenditures go to these purposes, which is about 6 or 7 percent of GDP.
