People have always seemed to like counting others’ losses, especially if it concerns large states. It turned out the European Union, which is equal in the overall economic power to the US and China, suffered from sanctions imposed against Russia.
Despite record economic growth rates logged this year and Germany being the world’s fourth biggest economy, the EU is to face rather hard times. Partially, this is linked to sanctions against the Russian Federation. The ban has already cost the EU over 30 billion euros in lost income. Before 2014, big exports to Russia made it the fourth largest trade partner of the EU. One of the main export items was food deliveries, though one may wonder why the country spends that much money on buying food abroad.
Cyprus, Greece and Croatia were hit most as their exports to Russia plunged by 35%, 23% and 21%, respectively. Meanwhile, according to the UN estimates, the Russian economy lost $55 billion over these three years.
