Larry Summers Says Russian Economic Sanctions Are Not Working

ZAKARIA: “Is it fair to say that the economic sanctions have not had the bite that people expected?”
SUMMERS: “Russian economic sanctions haven’t really bitten that hard because less than half of the world’s people have been involved in countries that are part of the sanctions and a large part of the world’s GDP. China, India, Turkey, as you mentioned certainly more than a third has not been part of the sanctions. And if you look at Russia’s neighbors, their trade with us has ramped up considerably in the last year which suggests that they are serving as a way station for goods to get into Russia. So there are real limits to the damage we can do Russia economically. We probably should try to stiffen up on the price caps on energy. There is financial areas where we can tighten. But the most important part of winning the economic aspect of the war of attrition is doing much more to support the economy of Ukraine which, by some measures, has declined by 40 percent.”