‘Sanctions only hurt you’

How it works

Start with what is true: sanctions have costs in Europe. Companies lost a market, some supply chains got longer and dearer, and in 2022 energy prices hurt households and factories alike. Whether the costs are worth it, and whether the measures are well designed, is a legitimate debate. The narrative is not that debate. It takes “there are costs” and turns it into “only we pay, they feel nothing, so lift them”.

It runs on three moves. First, blame transfer: every price rise gets the label “sanctions”, even where sanctions are not involved. The EU never sanctioned Russian gas; Gazprom cut its own deliveries through 2021–22 (see energy crisis blame-shifting). Second, one-sided bookkeeping: Russia’s GDP growth is quoted, but not what drives it: a war economy with arms factories on three shifts, high interest rates, labour shortages, a large share of central-bank reserves frozen abroad, oil sold at a discount to buyers in Asia, and technology that now has to be smuggled through third countries. Third, moving the goalposts: the sanctions were designed to raise the cost of the war and to starve the military of parts and money over time. The narrative measures them against a goal nobody set (“Russia should have collapsed by now”) and declares failure.

The facts behind the slogan are datable. EU sanctions began in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea and grew sharply after the full-scale invasion of February 2022: asset freezes, banks cut from SWIFT, export bans on technology, and later an embargo on seaborne Russian crude (December 2022) and refined products (February 2023), with a G7 price cap. Pipeline oil to Hungary, Slovakia and Czechia was exempted. EUvsDisinfo has logged hundreds of pro-Kremlin items on “suicidal sanctions” and “Europe suffered more than Russia”. Their purpose is not to inform you about prices. It is to make you ask your own government to stop.

Example

@pragmatic_pete, 6h Fuel’s up again. Thanks, sanctions. Meanwhile Russia’s economy GREW last year. We are the only ones paying for this war.

@dora_checks, 5h Fuel is up, yes. But gas was never sanctioned, and the oil we get by pipeline is exempt. That growth figure is mostly weapons plants running overtime on borrowed money. Two things can be true: it costs us, and it costs them more.

Notice “the only ones paying”. The measuring stick has vanished: nobody on the thread has said what the sanctions were meant to do, so no one can check whether they are doing it.

Why it works on you

• The cost is on your receipt; the effect is in Russia. You see your bill every month. You never see a factory in Tatarstan waiting for a chip that did not arrive. Visible beats invisible (see scapegoating).
• It gives the pain one name. Inflation has a dozen causes. One villain is more satisfying than twelve, and easier to vote against. See misleading charts for how a single cause gets isolated on a graph.
• It sounds grown-up. “Realism” versus “naive idealism” flatters you into the sensible camp before you have checked a number (see ‘common sense’).

What to do

When someone does it to you: split the one claim into three questions. What do the sanctions cost us? What do they cost Russia? What were they for? Ask for the comparison, not just the complaint. Anyone who only ever answers the first question is telling a story, not weighing a policy.

When you catch yourself doing it: if you reach for “sanctions” for every price rise, check the date. European gas prices were climbing in autumn 2021, months before the 2022 sanctions existed. If the timeline does not fit, the label does not fit.

In a comment section: do not deny the cost. People feel it, and denial makes you the liar. Say “yes, it costs us. Here’s what the other column looks like.” Then link something they can read on their own; see also whataboutism for the “and what about European prices?” reflex.

Don’t confuse it with

• Honest cost-benefit debate about sanction design, loopholes, circumvention through third countries or exemptions. That is how sanctions get better.
• Pointing out a specific measure that hit Europe harder than Russia, with evidence, is fair. “All sanctions are suicide” is the narrative.