Sanctions and a Falling Ruble

After Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, the European Union and the United States used economic sanctions to target Russia’s financial, energy and defense sectors. Western sanctions have multiplied the effect of the low oil prices, said Robert Kahn, an international economics senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Russia has very little debt, but sanctions have made it difficult for the country to borrow on international capital markets.Additionally, the ruble has fallen nearly 50 percent against the dollar since August 2014. This has depressed the standard of living across Russia, because a weaker ruble makes imports more expensive. Russia countered Western sanctions with import bans on various food products, leading to a smaller supply of those goods and further rising prices.The World Bank predicts the poverty rate will reach 14.2 percent in 2016.