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VLADIMIR PUTIN

Ndavaningi Nick Mangwana Correspondent
Russian President Vladimir Putin says sanctions imposed by the West against Russia are illegal because they were not imposed through the United Nations. Sounds familiar? Since these sanctions, the Russian currency, the rouble has tumbled. The Russian economy is stuttering. Consequently, Russia is now reaching out to cultivate tighter economic relationships with China; déjà vu. We have witnessed this elsewhere.

The sanctions regime against Russia is packaged as travel bans against certain members of the Russian government, Duma, State allied companies and businessmen. In its usual grandiloquent parlance, the West uses terms like “smart sanctions”, “targeted sanctions” or “travel embargo”. Again familiar words calculated to mislead.

Russia is a powerful country in any man’s language. It has oil and gas whose revenues account for half of its budget.
It is the world’s second largest oil exporter. It is a very large country with a population of about 144 million.

It is technologically and industrially developed with a diversified base. Some still consider it a superpower. In August 2014, Russia had a stockpile of $472 billion in hard currency and $1.5 trillion of assets — seemingly enough to withstand the effect of Western sanctions against it.
This has not been the case.

Its economy is now struggling. Russian banks have been cut from accessing international finances. In response they have tightened their own lending to local banks. State companies like oil giant Rosneft have already started showing signs of financial distress. Rosneft has already asked the State to bail it out with $25 billion from the reserves for it to refinance its debt. The growth rate is flat-lining with most objective analysts settling on 0.2 percent.

If these things happen to a tree that is green (Russia), how much more should have happened to a dry one (Zimbabwe)? Add 15 years of the same and you stop wondering why the obvious happened; the economy burned. It’s a either a miracle or dextrous statecraft that we are still standing.
One can imagine sanctions deniallists saying: “Here we go again. The sanctions rhetoric starts!”

Well, firstly this is not “sanctions rhetoric”, secondly and more importantly, Zimbabwe is still under sanctions.
One has to first concede a few points; the zanu-pf government has made some mistakes. It therefore is responsible for some failures. Of course, it is a government run by mortals and they cannot be infallible. But to deny that ZIDERA 2001 and the EU Special Measures (sanctions) did not play a major role in the economic decline of our country is disingenuous. This is quite obvious, isn’t it? In the same spirit of stating the obvious, here is another admission of guilt: the current goings on in zanu-pf’s as an exordium to the Congress in early

December is damaging the economy. Oh yes!
Now let’s also talk about those sanctions packaged as travel bans against the First Family.

International relations are transacted very much the way a community does: interactions, borrowing, lending, marrying; etc, such that those that are socially isolated find it hard to have simple, everyday exchanges.

In the village, people conduct a cattle exchange system or loaning system known as kuronza mombe.
One who needs a cow for milk will swap with one who needs an ox to till the land. This is just day-to-day village life. The socially isolated cannot partake of these exchanges. Or when they do, the transactions are so lop-sided and unfair.

The stigma of the accusations against the socially undesirable family affects all inter-clan and kinsmen transactions.
A patriarch is the nexus of all clan kinship, transactions and social organisation.
By the same token, a Head of State is the sovereign embodiment of a nation’s being.

The sanctions against the First Family are analogous to a socially isolated family.
When a Head of State is placed under sanctions, it can appear innocuous to the citizenry. You hear people asking why they should care if Mugabe and his wife are stopped from going in Europe.

No Cdes, if I were a rich president would I waste my time moving between racks of clothes checking sizes and trying out?
Most of us hate the dressing and undressing in change rooms that comes with buying off-the-rack clothes.
Those with money and power normally call in an exclusive designer to come and take their measurements and outfit them.

Bespoke fashion would be the obvious choice. I wouldn’t need to go shopping in Europe.
My European tastes would come to me. History is replete with examples of such, the case of Mobutu’s extravagance for example.
They import extravagant luxuries from all over the world. They don’t have to be physically there to do it, do they?

These sanctions are not about that. It’s not about travelling, it’s not about shopping. Nor are they about filthy lucre stashed away somewhere.
Sanctions are about stigmatising a country and demonising it.
The religious amongst us will know that if you strike the shepherd, the sheep will scatter.

You put a sanctions stain on a Head of State, you blight the whole country and its economic system.
The country struggles to service its debts.
A country under sanctions has a very low credit rating as it is considered very risky.

It cannot access lines of credit or attract foreign direct investment. Joint ventures with foreign companies are near impossible. Most of us saw the exchange between young Takunda Chingonzo and President Obama. We also know that his company Saisai and him personally were never on the sanctions list.

Despite this, he articulated how substantially affected he was by the so-called targeted sanctions. Here was an example of how effective the stigma and resultant stealthy sanctions have had on Zimbabwe and its employment capacity.

This is the case in the village and its social interactions, and indeed the case with the great bear, Russia.
If Russia’s economy is tottering on the brink in spite of its G8 status, how much more for our little Zimbabwe, which is just a harmless flame lily?
Sanctions are real and this is just obvious. If the President is under sanctions, Zimbabwe is under sanctions.

The writer is zanu-pf UK chairman.