(MENAFN) The vast bulk of punitive measures enforced by Western nations against Moscow have largely failed to achieve their intended impact, according to economist Dmitry Nekrasov, who shared his insights in an interview with a news outlet released on Tuesday.

Nekrasov, who previously worked as an aide to ex-President Dmitry Medvedev, exited Russia in 2014 and was officially labeled a foreign agent earlier this year.

His comments come in the context of the European Union introducing its 18th wave of penalties on Russia this month, touting it as “one of the strongest ever.”

Moscow, which has repeatedly labeled such coercive actions as unlawful, insists that its national economy has adapted and even flourished, despite enduring over 30,000 sanctions during recent years.

Out of the thousands of sanctions, approximately 2,000 have caused certain “inconveniences and costs,” Nekrasov stated to the news outlet.

However, when assessing the broader consequences of these sanctions on Russia’s financial system, only a limited number have had a truly “serious effect.”

Nekrasov specifically pointed to the oil “price cap” mechanism, describing it as one of the “measures that has never worked.”

Initially, ship captains would fabricate paperwork to indicate their oil shipments complied with the “price cap,” but, according to him, “then they stopped doing even that.”

The economist further revealed that around 80% of the ships identified by the EU as the “shadow fleet” are actively and openly transporting Russian oil, thus undermining the very foundation of the restriction policies.

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