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Russia’s president doesn’t usually peddle religious fundamentalism, though Kremlin propaganda has appealed to Christian Orthodoxy at times throughout the war in Ukraine (perhaps most notoriously last Christmas when adopting a dubious “ceasefire” proposal by Patriarch Kirill). Pro-government pundits are nevertheless happy to criticize the Americans for religious “fanaticism.” Last May, for example, Margarita Simonyan argued that America was built on it entirely — first, by the Pilgrims and sustained today by “woke” progressives.
2.6 How effective are sanctions on Russia
Economists have been digging into this question and say it is difficult to tell. There are too many sanctions and as Russia is hiding its data it is very difficult to get a full picture. But several trends are apparent.
Overall we find that China and Turkey have meaningfully increased trade with Russia, to a large degree compensating the collapse in trade relationship between Russia and the US and the EU (Figures 5 through 8
20 RUSSIA Country Report March 2023 www.intellinews.com