Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of international economic sanctions against Russia related to that country's occupation of parts of Ukraine.

​Sanctions are having an impact on Russia, exacerbating negative trends in its economy caused by low oil prices and structural weakness. The Russian economy contracted by approximately 3.7% in 2015 and by 0.5% in 2016. Financial sanctions are particularly effective, making it expensive and difficult for sanctioned Russian entities to access finance to rollover existing debt and fund new investment projects.