That’s a dumb question, if someone sanctions your country and tries to cut it if off from the rest of the world’s economy, why would anyone continue to do business that way, especially when you can sell your products to other countries who are not sanctioning you at much greater prices and rake in more money.
We were told the sanctions were put in place to punish Russia and get them to back off, they have not done that and have resulted in near hyperinflation in Western Europe and warnings of energy shortages with people freezing over the winter and businesses shutting down.
By every possible measure, the sanctions have backfired.
So sanctions have backfired but Russia is desperate to change the status quo. So contrary to your argument, the sanctions ARE affecting Russia to a significant degree.
The Russians are buying back the artillery shells they sold the North Koreans 25 years ago. Probably at a good price.
I’ve read that our own production lines are only capable of making a few hundred shells a week, about what would normally be used in practice firing. If push comes to shove, maybe we can buy a few back from th Taliban.
Russia currently has no products to sell abroad. Russian foreign sales are presently limited to commodities, mostly oil and gas
The real story here is that Russia needs to buy artillery shells? It was axiomatic that Russian Generals first option is always guns parked wheel to wheel to batter the enemy senseless before a double envelopment.
The question rises, what happened to all the shells required? The answer seems to be that they did not actually exist.
The story is widely reported and not restricted to the New York Times.