Opinion

Putin must end this war or suffer economic consequences

Putin must end this war or suffer economic consequences

Juana Garcia/The Cougar

While the cost of lives has already been tragic in this conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the economic cost will continue to hurt citizens in both countries. Because of this, Putin must end this war. 

Since Feb. 24, a total of 2.7 million people have left Ukraine, no doubt hurting the country in the long run as it will likely struggle to recover economically in the future with a large portion of its population gone. 

A Pew Research study found that countries believe that having more migrants makes them stronger. This makes sense as having a large population can increase the variety of skills in the workforce.

Ukraine is struggling against Russia as of now, but even if Ukraine wins, it will struggle to get the economy back to thriving with a fraction of its people. 

A lot of this war is the result of a power struggle between NATO and Russia. If Putin doesn’t want to trigger a major military conflict with NATO nations, he should end the violence against Ukraine. 

It’s not in the interest of Russia to have war with any NATO member as its biggest member is the U.S, who has the most military spending than any other country by far. In the North Atlantic Treaty, article five states that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all. 

Since Ukraine President Zelensky expressed a desire to join NATO, and Russia’s rockets have been striking dangerously close to Poland, a country in the treaty.  

Russia has a lot to lose, so it is better for them to back off. As of now, Russia is the most sanctioned country in the world. This is hurting its citizens who have been fighting over grocery store food due to shortages. 

A growing list  of companies including McDonalds, Starbucks and Goldman Sachs are also pulling out of Russia.

Additionally, the Russian ruble has declined over 40 percent and shares in Russian companies have fallen over 90 percent. Some experts have called this the worst economic situation in Russia since the Soviet Union fell. 

However, Putin does not want to stop. He is determined to get Ukraine no matter the cost to his country and people. 

Russia exports oil to mostly European countries. The top exports of Russia are crude petroleum, refined petroleum, Gas, Coal and Wheat, according to OEC. 

Germany relies on Russia for petroleum. Russia exported 8.53 billion dollars worth of crude petroleum in 2019 to Germany. Sanctions against them will hurt this large industry and continue to hurt the Russian economy.

Putin should put an end to this war or else the sanctions will continue. He must end this war for the sake of the Ukrainians and Russians who will economically suffer the most once this war ends. 

Jason Perez is a journalism and political science senior who can be reached at [email protected]

1 Comment

  • You aren’t very informed about history are you. When the USSR fell in 1991 the West promised to not move East with Nato and in exchange Germany would be allowed to unite and Western arms inspectors could take part in reducing nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union. Well go look at how the west moved NATO country by country to the Russias doorstep since then. Basically Ukraine is the Cuban missle crisis in reverse. We wouldn’t let Russia move the Warsaw Pact into Mexico after promising not to.

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