"Agency": the government was not ready for strict sanctions

The financial and economic block of the Russian government and the leadership of large state-owned companies were not ready for imposed sanctions due to military invasion of Ukraine. The government was preparing for limited sanctions in case of recognition of the independence of the so -called "DPR" and "LPR", but not to a large -scale war. This is claimed by the publication "Agency" with reference to sources in the government.

One of the high -ranking officials told the publication that "did not know" that there would be a full -scale invasion. Some of his colleagues news about the entry of troops into Ukraine plunged "into shock." Some commentators of the Agency described the situation with non -normative vocabulary.

All the last time, the most terrible measure was the disconnection from Swift, the interlocutor of the Agency said in the leadership of one of the state -owned companies. The government was preparing for such a scenario, conducting stress tests, as reported by The Bell. But the countries of the West went to more rigid sanctions, among which actually freezing the currency assets of the Central Bank. Western companies began to leave the Russian market. Nobody calculated the effect of such sanctions - the sources of the publication say.

It is also alleged that in March 2014, during the so -called Russian spring, when Crimea was annexed, the government calculated the risks of joining the Donetsk, Lugansk and Kharkov regions of Ukraine to Russia, and then did not take this step, because the Russian economy, according to the calculations, was not ready for this, ”says one of the interlocutors of the“ agency, ”a former high -standing official. Despite the state of stress, the officials of the Kremlin and the government do not yet think about dismissal, believing that this will be regarded as a betrayal.

Journalist Farid Rustamova, citing his sources in the Kremlin, government and State Duma, also writes that almost no one outside the narrowest circle of close Putin knew about the decision to start invasion of Ukraine. Even at the Council of People's Commissars on February 21, which discussed the issue of recognizing the “DPR” and “LPR”, Putin “practically none of the participants” said what would happen next. One of Rustamova’s interlocutors, the “good friend of Putin,” believes that the Russian president is sincerely convinced that the West destroyed the “rules of the game” with Russia. “This is paranoia, which has reached the point of absurdity,” he says. "And Putin now seriously believes that (Minister of Defense Sergey) Shoigu with (the head of the General Staff Valery) Gerasimov is told that they will quickly take Kyiv."

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions, in response to it, the Russian authorities took a number of measures primarily to maintain the ruble exchange rate, including exporters to sell 80 percent of foreign exchange earnings on the exchange, forbade residents to transfer currency to foreign banks, forbade the payment of dividends abroad, the Central Bank raised a rate of up to 20 percent. The Russian authorities claim that other measures are being prepared in response to sanctions. The most noticeable effect of the sanctions has so far have the fall in the ruble - the dollar costs more than 100 rubles, the euro more than 120 rubles.

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