16 June 2022
Many of the commentators on the situation in Ukraine seem to think that Russia has been kicked out of the international system, that it's a pariah and that it will never be re-admitted.
Fact is, the Russian and European economies have been very closely integrated for decades and the proof is the squealing you can hear from France and Germany now that they have to kow-tow to American sanctions.
But reality is that the entrepreneurs in the small and medium-sized Russian companies and the managers in the larger companies have, by their frontier positions, got this international outlook - why, they even send their kids for schooling in top British and European universities, they own real estate on the Côte d'Azur - they have got this international outlook and are in contact with their European counterparts, and once the political side of this conflict has quietened down, the economic and social sides will come back to the fore.
On a related point of some interest, it's worth noting that where Western countries have pulled out of Russia, this has presented a golden opportunity for Russians with a bit of money to take over. For example, the well known case of the McDonald's chain. This will only serve to make them richer and if Russians have money to spend then Europeans' and Americans' ears prick up and tills open and trade resumes.
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