For Sergei Duzhikov and Maria Tyabut, a middle-class couple living in a town just outside Moscow, Western sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine have been manageable.
Despite warnings of a looming recession and high inflation, they and many other Russians feel their economy has adapted successfully to Western sanctions, even if it means parting with some well-known Western brands for good.
“From the perspective of my everyday life—home, family, work, leisure, friends, hobbies, and interests, I honestly don’t feel the impact of sanctions,” said Maria, who works at a cosmetics company.
Supermarkets have found a range of domestic and foreign alternatives to Western products, including Camembert cheese, one of Maria’s creature comforts.
Among the most well-known brands to leave was fast-food chain McDonald’s, famously replaced by Russian-owned Vkusno i tochka (which translates to ‘Delicious, Full Stop’) in 2022. Danone left the Russian market in 2022 and eventually sold its operations to a businessman linked to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
Some Russian companies have also been able to import popular Western goods via third countries, albeit at a higher cost.
The couple’s experiences seem to indicate that the sanctions have failed to affect the daily lives of Russians, just as they have failed to restrain Russia’s war machine. As europeanconservative.com contributor Pieter Cleppe wrote, “historically, economic sanctions have almost never achieved their aim. The targeted regimes typically manage to use all kinds of innovative techniques to evade sanctions. Russia has also done so.”
