Not really, they can sustain themselves during a period of time, even without EU/US buying stuff from them. Meanwhile, EU won't have natural gas and everyone over here will get screwed.
If the big pharma groups stop the export of drugs to Russia (85% of the total drugs on the market are imported) will see the Russian population shrink by 10% percent in one year.
Also , what is even funnier is that most of the drilling equipment used by the Russian to dig and process and also transport gas and oil is imported from Holland , Norway and Germany.
Yeah, but they already have that equipment, and if they stop selling gas, they don't really need additional equipment. Also, can i have a source for the drug thing?
http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/russia-sets-out-limits-purchasing-imported-meds/2013-01-02
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Right now, PharmaTimes notes, 85% of Russia's state drug spending goes to foreign-made drugs. In 2011, 93% of the most expensive meds sold in the country were imported. So, moving the needle in the opposite direction will freeze out a lot of foreign-made drug sales.
And , if they already have the equipment why are they still importing it?
Because they need constant replacements , parts and so on.
http://en.ria.ru/business/20140808/191832928/Russias-Rosneft-Proposes-Law-Change-to-Bypass-US-Imports-Ban.html
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MOSCOW, August 1 (RIA Novosti) Russias oil giant Rosneft has proposed to the countrys government to amend its corporate purchases law or scrap import duties on drilling equipment in the wake of the recent Western sanctions, a Russian economic daily wrote Friday.
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It is not the first time that the issue about imposing of duties on import drill rigs has appeared on the Russian agenda. Not long ago the government concluded that the domestic manufacturer needs protection, and approved import duty rates equal to 5-15% of the customs value of equipment. Later, they were slashed to zero due to demands from the oil-and-gas lobby asserting that home manufacturers do not take into account requirements of drilling companies and do not make user-friendly and efficient drill rigs.
The cancellation of duties gave certain results: now Russian companies are manufacturing drill rigs entirely by customers' specifications, completing them with the components preferred by oil companies. However, another problem came up: being of similar configuration, Russian rigs turned out to be much more expensive than Chinese equipment and just slightly cheaper than German rigs. The reason was not only in annually increasing rates for gas, electricity, gasoline, metal and rail transportation, but also in the Chinese approach to industrial management. Cheap labor, low taxes and costs put Russian manufacturers at a disadvantage.
The cancellation of duties gave certain results: now Russian companies are manufacturing drill rigs entirely by customers' specifications, completing them with the components preferred by oil companies. However, another problem came up: being of similar configuration, Russian rigs turned out to be much more expensive than Chinese equipment and just slightly cheaper than German rigs. The reason was not only in annually increasing rates for gas, electricity, gasoline, metal and rail transportation, but also in the Chinese approach to industrial management. Cheap labor, low taxes and costs put Russian manufacturers at a disadvantage.