Commodities as Weapons: How Russia's Natural Resources are Fuelling Its Imperialistic Aggression against the West
Publisher: Macdonald Laurier
Author(s): Sergey Sukhankin
Date: 2024
Topics: Conflict Causes, Extractive Resources
Countries: Canada, Russian Federation, Ukraine
Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 caused a series of economic and geopolitical shocks that have jolted the world’s economy and security. However, the Western approach to punishing Russia’s aggression through economic sanctions is flawed, and so far, has failed to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Western countries have overestimated the transformative power of the free market economy. The West willingly made Russia its largest supplier of commodities and materials and expected it to follow the path of other previously totalitarian regimes – such as Japan, Germany, and Italy – and become a “normal” European country. Instead, Russia has reversed course and is now a militarizing authoritarian power.
Today, Russia holds dominant global positions in natural resources and commodities including hydrocarbons, foods, critical metals, and fertilizers. This paper examines how Russia’s exports, especially in agriculture (grains and fertilizers), critical minerals (uranium, titanium, nickel, aluminium), and coal, are fuelling the Kremlin’s war machine in Ukraine, while also challenging and undermining the global financial-economic architecture and established principles of international trade.
The West’s reliance on Russian goods and commodities gives Putin crucial leverage, while exposing their economies to the potential of economic blackmail from Russia. For Canada, this presents a historic opportunity to supplant Russian exports with Canadian goods and commodities.