John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister addressed my question in the last line there in respect of the impact of the sanctions. My question is really on the efficacy of the sanctions. How do we know what impact they are having? How long does the Minister think it will take for the report on those impacts to be returned? He referred to it being done at EU level. What is the ultimate purpose of the sanctions? I support them, but I would like more details on them. I listened to an interview carried on radio recently. It was on RTÉ and done by an American. He said some goods in the shops in Moscow are marginally dearer, but regarding the impacts of the sanctions on the ordinary citizen, it seems these sanctions are impacting on more westernised and western-minded Russians. Therefore, I wonder how long it will take for these sanctions to impact in a deep way. Are we talking about a matter of weeks or of months? When does the Minister expect to see a political return from the sanctions? My basic question is: when do they begin to squeeze?

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