War by Other Means: Western Sanctions on Russia and Moscow’s Response by AngelaBorozna and Lada V.Kochtcheeva. New York: Springer, 2024. xvii + 216. $49.99. ISBN 978‐3‐031‐51369‐5

This book includes an engaging, thorough summary of the sanctions imposed by numerous countries on Russia during the period from 2014 through 2024, primarily focused on the sanctions imposed following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Of note, the authors discuss Russia’s response to these sanctions, both in terms of the economic moves designed to lessen their impact as well as the Russian government’s sanctioning of parties itself. The authors also devote a chapter to the implications to the rest of the world of the sanctions on Russian targets, examining how those sanctions have affected and will further shape the economic and political relationships between Russia and United States, Europe, Asia, and the post-Soviet states, including with respect to trade and currency effects. The authors helpfully preface their discussion of the sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with a theoretical overview of sanctions in general, as well as with a brief history of the sanctions imposed against Russia following its 2014 annexation of Crimea. As elsewhere in the book, the discussion of these sanctions is also accompanied by an examination of Russia’s response to those measures. The authors identify that the post-Crimea sanctions “pushed Russia to acknowledge that it was overly reliant on the West” and led Russia to adopt an “increased reliance on domestic assets and structures and…a more multi-vector economic policy that emphasizes closer relations with non-Western countries” (p. 49). In so doing, they trace the development of trends important to the sanctions landscape today. For example, the authors identify that following the 2022 sanctions, “[m]any Russian observers view the Western economic blockade, with all its costs, as opening a new page in the history of the Russian economy” (p. 72). They describe that “[a]s Russia is moving away from the Western-centric global economy, it may be replaced by closer integration with the Chinese markets, as well as the markets of other friendly countries,” and they also identify the role of domestic industrial production in this economic repositioning (p. 72). Particularly useful is the chapter on sanctions busting, which explains in detail and on a country-by-country basis the roles that China, Turkey, India, Iran, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, and Lithuania have had on reducing the impact of the sanctions on Russia. This approach highlights interesting trends in sanctions evasion, such as for example the sudden increase following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine of car exports from Armenia to Russia, or the marked rise in demand for polyamides (used to make various military items) in Kazakhstan. The authors evaluate the effectiveness of the sanctions on Russia by examining economic trends in various areas, including foreign trade, the energy industry, the defense industry, banking and finance, aviation and automobiles, information technology, and the retail sector. The authors conclude that the sanctions against Russia “remain ineffective” at the goals of halting the Russian invasion of Ukraine and triggering a change in leadership (p. 133). They do, however, contextualize these sanctions goals in the broader landscape of possible sanctions objectives, opining that “sanctions can be considered relatively effective in terms of inflicting additional costs to Russia’s economic transactions. The West and its allies could not immediately crush the Russian economy…However, the cost to the Russian economy can still be considerable, especially in the years to come” (p. 5). The authors detail the various factors that are likely to have inhibited the wholesale success of the sanctions against Russia, including the lack of a current ban on Russian liquefied natural gas imports into Europe, the delayed imposition of sanctions on certain Russian banks such as Gazprombank, and the ability of Russia to substitute non-sanctioning buyers such as China and India as customers for its oil supplies. The authors also discuss the role of secondary sanctions in the sanctions framework. Overall, this detailed, thorough account is well-researched and a useful addition to the sanctions literature.