The impact of the Sanctions and Counter Sanctions on the Russian and EU Member States Economies

Abstract

This paper analyzes the consequences of the diplomatic conflict that began in 2014 between the European Union and the Russian Federation caused by the political and military crisis in Ukraine. In March 2014, the leaders of the European Union condemned the actions of Russia in Ukraine and imposed the first restrictive measures against Russian Federation. In turn, Russia took retaliatory measures materialised in an import ban on certain agricultural food products from the EU. The aim of this research is to identify and evaluate the impact of the sanctions and countersanctions on the economy of the Russian Federation and on bilateral trade between Russia and EU member states. This article will focus on the following main objectives: analyzing the evolution of trade relations between the two major powers in the period 2014-2019, determining the factors that may explain the decline in bilateral trade during the period mentioned above and the factors that may explain why some EU Member States have suffered higher losses than others. In order to achieve the proposed objectives, both qualitative and quantitative analyses were used. Official documents, academic articles and studies conducted by various prestigious think-tanks were analysed. Also, th