On Thursday 19 January, Pushkin House invites you to listen to a panel of experts who will discuss the economic sanctions that the West has imposed on Russia. Designed to penalise any contribution to Russia’s war machine, these sanctions have crippled Russian industrial production and damaged the commercial and financial sectors, but have not yet put an end to the war. How do the experts regard the current situation? The speakers include Maximilian Hess, Elina Ribakova and Nicholas Trickett, and the conversation will be moderated by Dasha Afanasieva.

Certainly, the Russian Federation is not the first country to experience the pressure of economic sanctions that aim to deter counter imperialist foreign policy. Economists and politicians have used them for decades, both strategically and symbolically. Nevertheless, sanctions hardly ever lead directly to regime change. So, what is their role?

By all accounts, the Russian economy will not recover any time soon. Lack of access to state-of-the-art technologies makes any economic or scientific progress impossible. The consumer market has sunk. The manufacture of goods relying on imports has collapsed. People are facing the worst economic crisis in the country's modern history. What’s next?