Sanctions to have little impact on Russia in 2016, US says

Western sanctions will have a negligible effect on the Russian economy this year, after a “one-off” blow last year, but long-term effects will also hurt, the US says.

The sanctions, imposed by the EU and US in mid-2014, prompted the Russian economy to contract by 1 to 1.5 percent more than it would have done in 2015, a State Department official told press in Brussels on Tuesday (12 January).

They also led international investors to write down the vaue of Russian assets by some 1...