A recent phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US president Joe Biden ended with Moscow calling USA’s sanctions a ‘colossal mistake’.
The Russian invasion of Crimea and the occupation of eastern parts of Ukraine hit the headlines for the first time in 2014. The US claimed that it was a breach of international protocols and treaties and a disrespect of Ukraine’s sovereignty. In the light of these developments, the USA called for economic sanctions on Russia.
Sanctions have been used by several nations extensively as a major Foreign Policy Tool. Sanctions lie somewhere between diplomacy and war. They can be of several forms: trade restrictions, travel embargo, ban on certain entities and companies of the targeted state, the shutdown of websites from that state, ban on arms and so on. They are used to alter undesirable political and economic decisions taken by the targeted state. Sanctions can be unilateral, for instance, China’s ban on Australian Wheat and Barley or they can be multilateral, such as, the P5’s ban on Iran’s Nuclear Programme.

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What is the Conflict About?
Russia’s interest in Ukraine can be analyzed from two lenses: the historical and the geopolitical perspective. Though the ground reality has several more complexities, we can essentially understand Moscow’s stand through these two viewpoints.
Russia shares a historical bond with Kiev, which existed from way before the Cold War Era. Ukraine and Russia formed the Ancient Russian State of Rus. The people of Russia have a shared heritage and culture with the people of Ukraine. At least one-third of the present Ukrainian population speaks Russian and feels closer to Russian culture. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia felt a bitter loss when Ukraine emerged as a separate entity. This explains the sentimental aspect of Russia- Ukraine ties.
If we talk of the geopolitical reality, Russian President Putin feels the reemergence of Cold War Rivalries as NATO is expanding its ambit in the east. Ukraine has held several military drills with the USA and Russia seems skeptical of these growing developments. Ukraine’s political heads wish to be aligned with the vocally democratic USA and this irks the Russian leadership. It is only natural for Russia to feel threatened as it shares a 1200-mile-long border with Ukraine and could be targeted in case of a military standoff with the USA. This reason is cited by the Russian officials for the deployment of military personnel near the Russia-Ukraine border.  

Why did the US Impose Sanctions on Russia?
Russia tried several soft power and hard power tactics on Ukraine. It spread disinformation amongst the masses and launched a cyber-attack amongst several other instruments to pressurize the Ukrainian leadership into submission but to no avail. President Vladimir Putin realizes his losing influence in Ukraine. The White House officials think that the building of troops near the Ukraine border is an ominous sign of an impending invasion though Moscow denies these allegations.  

How Do These Sanctions Impact Russia?
Under the current sanctions, Washington has blacklisted several Russian companies, barred US commercial banks from buying Russian bonds and made it difficult for “Dollar-Ruble” transactions to take place. These sanctions led to the value of the Russian Currency falling steadily.
Russia has also witnessed a fall in the prices in the oil market as well as reduced trade after the imposition of these sanctions and the Russian economy has been reeling under these developments since 2014. The recent threats by the US add fuel to fire.
Though Economic Sanctions have been used extensively by the US, there have been mixed opinions about the efficiency of the same. Several studies suggest that economic sanctions are not really effective and cause significant harm to the international economy, especially if imposed unilaterally. For instance, the reduction in dollar- ruble exchange has been detrimental not just to Moscow but to Washington as well. The US has lost on several financially benefiting trade exchanges due to political rivalry.
Sanctions ultimately fail to meet their objective as it doesn’t discipline the targeted state but just diverts their trade elsewhere, as was seen in Cuba. It needs to be understood that in an interconnected world as we have today, it is difficult to coerce a country through unilateral sanctions.
 

Conclusion
I believe that Russia needs to be clearer about its motives behind the deployments in Ukraine, needs to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and needs to understand the shifting world power dynamics and alignments since the Cold-War Era has long ended. On the other hand, the US needs to assure Russia that it will not use Ukraine’s territory to launch an attack against Russia. The US also needs to reduce the usage of sanctions as the regular imposition of the same would dilute its effectiveness without achieving substantial benefits. The US and Russia need to reach a common ground to ensure better diplomatic ties between the two economic powers.