After Putin’s invasion of Ukraine back in February 2022, the West responded with some of the most wide-reaching sanctions ever. The UK government claimed that they ‘would cripple Russia's war machine' whilst Biden asserted that 'sanctions are devastating their economy'. But a year on, the predicted 15% collapse in GDP has not materialised and Putin’s capacity to wage war seems not to have been affected. Maria Demertzis, Senior fellow at Bruegel and part-time Professor of Economic Policy at the European University Institute in Florence, explains why.