The new U.S. sanctions may create some difficulties, but Russia has already adapted to the restrictions and learned to hedge against possible risks. This was announced on Friday, November 3, by the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov.

"We've adapted... Any large Russian company in any field – financial, manufacturing, construction, mining, transport – is currently primarily hedged against sanctions risks in its work and draws up an action plan in case of falling under sanctions... Yes, it brings relative problems, but we have learned to overcome them," the Kremlin spokesman stressed.

The night before, the U.S. Treasury Department announced the expansion of the list of economic sanctions against Moscow. According to the ministry, the new restrictions are directed against the military-industrial complex, mining and metallurgical industries, as well as the energy sector of the Russian Federation. In total, the restrictions affected 37 citizens and 192 companies from Russia and other countries.

Among the individuals under sanctions were high-ranking employees of Russian ministries. Among them are Deputy Ministers of Industry and Trade Viktor Yevtukhov and Alexei Besprozvannykh, Deputy Minister of Energy Anastasia Bondarenko, Deputy Minister of Digital Development Oleg Kachanov, Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations Alexei Serko and Director of the Legal Department of the Ministry of Economic Development Lev Gershanok.

In addition, the list includes entrepreneur Gleb Trotsenko, CEO of Danone Russia JSC Yakub Zakriev and his father, First Deputy Chairman of the Chechen Parliament Salman Zakriev, designer Alexander Zakharov and members of his family. Citizens of Cyprus, Latvia, Ireland, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Switzerland and Sweden also fell under the restrictions.

At the same time, Sistema, St. Petersburg Exchange, two Gazprom Neft structures and a number of financial organizations, such as Post Bank, the Russian Regional Development Bank, Russian Standard Bank, Absolut Bank and Home Bank, were added to the sanctions list of legal entities. In addition, restrictions have been imposed against Bauman Moscow State Technical University, NOVATEK's Arctic LNG-2 project and some organizations from China, Luxembourg, the UAE, Turkey and Switzerland.

All these companies and citizens are subject to the so-called blocking sanctions. Their assets in the United States will be frozen, and American businesses will be banned from working with them.

According to US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Washington "will continue to destroy every link in the Russian military supply chain" and impose restrictions on all third parties supporting the Russian Armed Forces.

"Sanctions will not have a serious economic impact. Certain difficulties may arise for companies that were engaged in imports and are now under restrictions. However, I think business will be able to quickly reconfigure logistics and payment methods," Alexander Abramov, head of the Laboratory for Analysis of Institutions and Financial Markets at the Institute of Applied Economic Research of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, told RT.

According to him, the Russian banks on the sanctions list will be disconnected from the SWIFT international platform, and their UnionPay cards will stop working abroad. In addition, companies may have difficulty transferring money overseas and converting currencies for these transactions. However, it is unlikely that the capacity to provide such services will be completely blocked, as alternatives are available. A similar point of view is shared by Sergey Suverov, associate professor at the Financial University under the Government of Russia.

"The next U.S. sanctions will not have a significant impact on the Russian economy. If we talk about the banking sector, many of our financial institutions have already been subject to severe restrictions, but, as we can see, this has not had any significant effect, and business continues to increase capitalization even under blocking restrictions," Sergey Suverov told RT.

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Post Bank, for example, has already stated that the US sanctions will not affect the company's activities, and its customers will not feel any changes. The organization is going to continue working as usual.

"All accounts are still active, and funds placed in Post Bank are available both in branches and in remote channels. They can still be used in full in Russia. All cards of Post Bank, including foreign payment systems, continue to work at trade and service enterprises, as well as at ATMs throughout the Russian Federation," the message says.

The press service of Russian Standard Bank also noted that the company continues to work as usual, and cards of all payment systems are still valid in Russia. At the same time, UnionPay card transactions abroad may be suspended in the near future, the organization warned.

"The bank recommends customers abroad to withdraw cash from the card (the bank's commission for cash withdrawals abroad on November 2-3 will be refunded). On the territory of the Russian Federation, the UnionPay card will continue to work. Cards of the MIR payment system work in some foreign countries both in stores and in ATMs of a number of banks," the company added.

According to Alexander Abramov, one of the most "sensitive moments" of the new sanctions may be the restrictions on the Arctic LNG-2, since this is a "fairly serious project" of NOVATEK. However, according to BCS World of Investments experts, the introduction of restrictions "did not come as a surprise" and the company will still be able to implement the initiative, although gas will probably have to be sold at a discount.

The head of NOVATEK, Leonid Mikhelson, called the inclusion in the sanctions lists "an assessment of the professionalism" of the company, writes TASS. Similarly, Rector of Bauman Moscow State Technical University Mikhail Gordin commented on Washington's actions. According to him, the introduction of American restrictions is "a recognition of the scientific potential" of the university, the competitiveness of the technical solutions being developed and the high quality of training for the economy.

"Being included in the lists will have almost no impact on our current operations. We have long adapted to life in the face of sectoral constraints for high-tech industries. This does not prevent us from continuing scientific research, developing new equipment and conducting educational programs to train highly qualified engineering personnel," Gordin stressed.

A Signal for Investors

According to experts, the US sanctions may have a greater impact on the work and clients of the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange. Today, it is the main trading platform in Russia for transactions with foreign securities.

"The new sanctions will have a significant impact on the exchange, since trading in American securities was a large part of their business. The loss of this direction is a sensitive event. Probably, the exchange will reorient itself to the Asian and domestic markets," Sergey Suverov suggested.

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All foreign counterparties will have to terminate relations with SPB Exchange and withdraw from its securities by January 31, 2024. This is stated in the general license published by the US Treasury.

Against the background of the decision, over the past day, the shares of the trading platform have already fallen in price by more than 20%, and it was decided to suspend all operations with foreign securities. According to the press service of the exchange, the restrictions imposed by the United States will not affect the assets of customers. At the same time, experts do not rule out that foreign shares owned by Russians may be blocked.

"Probably, in the future, holders of such securities will have the opportunity to sell them through Russian brokers, but this will take time. In general, this is a clear signal for Russian investors not to buy more Western securities through loopholes, but to concentrate on the Asian or Russian markets," Alexander Abramov explained.

"They turned out to be stronger than the West believed"

According to the specialized database Castellum.AI, since February 2022 alone, the United States, together with other Western countries, has already imposed more than 15.2 thousand financial, trade, energy and other sanctions against Russia. At the same time, in total, almost 18 thousand different restrictions are now in force in relation to the country.

Although the sanctions were initially aimed at destroying the Russian economy, in practice, the restrictions imposed, on the contrary, became an impetus for its development. This was announced on Friday by Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk.

"This whole year has passed under the sign of 'sanctions from hell'... Our country has become the world record holder in terms of sanctions, leaving Iran and North Korea far behind, probably they envy us. But by and large, we are no longer interested in whether one sanction is more or less... In the face of sanctions, our economy has learned not just to survive, not just to learn to live, but to develop," the Deputy Prime Minister said.

In the face of unprecedented external pressure, a number of analysts previously predicted a collapse of the Russian economy by 10-25% in 2022. Nevertheless, the real decline was only 2.1% and was even less deep than in the pandemic 2020 (2.7%) and the crisis 2009 (7.8%). Moreover, according to President Vladimir Putin, in 2023 the country's GDP will fully win back last year's losses and add about 2.8-3%.

"Anti-Russian sanctions are just a means. And the goal, as the Western leaders themselves declare (direct quote), is to "make our citizens suffer"... thereby destabilizing our society from within. But their calculation did not come true: the Russian economy and management system turned out to be much stronger than the West believed," the head of state said earlier.