NEWSLINK Washington Post: A year into a conflict with Russia, are sanctions working?

When it comes to inflicting economic pain on Russia, the Kremlin may be doing a better job than Western sanctions.

Just don’t tell that to the Russian people, who overwhelmingly blame the West for a deepening recession that has parts of central Moscow starting to look like a ghost town.

Prices are soaring. The ruble is dropping. And Russian living standards are falling even as citizens on Wednesday celebrated the first anniversary of the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/a-year-into-a-conflict-with-russia-are-sanctions-working/2015/03/26/45ec04b2-c73c-11e4-bea5-b893e7ac3fb3_story.html