Russia's invasion: will sanctions work?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 24 February 2022
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Russia is facing sanctions from around the world. Can they hit the country hard enough to make it change course and leave Ukraine in peace?
In a live episode David Aaronovitch considers how sanctions have worked in other crises, why they are so frequently used and what circumstances are required for them to be successful.
He is joined by:
Lee Jones, Professor of International Politics at Queen Mary, University of London and author of the book Societies Under Siege: Exploring How International Economic Sanctions (Do Not) Work
Tom Keatinge, Director of the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies at RUSI
Dr Maria Shagina, Fellow at the Center for Eastern European Studies at the University of Zurich
Tyler Kustra, Assistant Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham
Producers: Rosamund Jones, Kirsteen Knight and Ben Carter Production co-ordinators: Sophie Hill and Siobhan Reed Studio manager: Rod Farquhar Editor: Richard Vadon
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Oronovich. The briefing room is the corner of the |
| 0:04.4 | metaverse, where you, me and the top experts get together to understand a big issue of the day. |
| 0:10.9 | This week, as the West responds to the Russian invasion of Ukraine with sanctions, we're asking |
| 0:16.4 | how successful those sanctions are likely to be. |
| 0:22.7 | This morning, Russia launched a full-on invasion of its neighbour Ukraine. |
| 0:27.9 | Military action against Russia by the West and its allies in this eventuality |
| 0:31.5 | has never been an option. |
| 0:33.8 | So far, the weapon chosen to punish or achieve a reverse in Russian aggression is economic |
| 0:39.0 | and other sanctions. |
| 0:40.7 | So, how far can sanctions go? |
| 0:44.0 | Who would suffer? |
| 0:45.3 | And would they be likely to succeed? |
| 0:47.8 | Step inside the briefing room and together we'll find out. |
| 0:55.6 | Before we examine how specific sanctions might work against Russia, how have they worked |
| 1:00.7 | against other countries in the past? |
| 1:03.4 | Lee Jones is Professor of International Politics at Queen Mary University of London. |
| 1:08.7 | Lee Jones, when people talk about sanctions and whether they're successful, people usually |
| 1:13.6 | point to the case of South Africa and the sanctions that were imposed on them to bring an end |
| 1:19.2 | to apartheid. Before we go on to whether or not they were successful, what sort of sanctions |
| 1:24.9 | actually were they? Quite a lot of different kinds. |
| 1:27.6 | So in the 1960s there was a voluntary arms embargo, and then that was widened to a mandatory |
| 1:32.4 | one from 1977. |
... |
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