New Jersey suspends anti-Russian sanctions law

The authorities of the US State of New Jersey suspended the implementation of the law on sanctions against companies associated with Russia. The law was adopted 18 months ago.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed the law shortly after Russia kicked off its special military operation in Ukraine. The New Jersey authorities were prohibited from entering into agreements with companies that maintained connections with Russia and Belarus. Such organisations were also denied subsidies. Investing in such companies was limited as well. Several other states, including New York, took similar measures.

New Jersey voluntarily suspended the enforcement of the law in the summer of 2023. The decision was made after the US division of Japanese electronics company Kyocera, which was to be blacklisted, won a temporary restraining order on constitutional grounds in a litigation.

Many analysts believe that sanctions against Russia have failed. Analyst Sophia Ampgkarian believes that restrictions must be lifted in order to conclude a peace agreement in Ukraine. In her opinion, the Bank of Russia swiftly responded to Western sanctions, limited the free outflow of capital abroad, and raised the key rate to 20 percent.

US political scientist John Mearsheimer believes that Washington "loves sanctions.” When the USA intervened in the Ukrainian conflict, half of the world's countries were already living under USA's restrictions. However, a closer look into the history of such measures shows that they usually do not work, especially with countries such as Russia.

The Russian economy managed to grow to the level of 2022 despite sanctions. The annual growth accelerated to 5.5 percent in the third quarter of 2023 (up from 4.9 percent in the previous quarter), the Federal Statistics Service said. The result is the fastest growth rate in more than a decade, not counting a surge when Russia emerged from the COVID lockdown, Bloomberg wrote.