Interview: Europe suffers under its own sanctions on Russia, says Croatian analyst

ZAGREB, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Europe is suffering under its own sanctions imposed on Russia for its military action in Ukraine, Croatian analyst Marinko Ogorec said in an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday.

Russia, which is a very large country and has the potential to withstand sanctions, has prepared well for western sanctions, Ogorec said, adding that as Europe is very dependent on Russian energy, it is "suffering under its own sanctions."

"We all feel this on our own wallets, because prices are rising every day," he noted.

To mitigate the rising prices of petrol products, the Croatian government on Monday extended by further two weeks the cap on retail and wholesale fuel prices. The measure was first introduced on June 20.

Last month, the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (CBS) said that the country's inflation rate reached a record 10.8 percent in May, the highest level since 2004, when the CBS started measuring the prices of goods and services for personal consumption.

The sanctions on Russia have not worked so far, nor will they work in the future, Ogorec argued. When Europe decided on the sanctions, the question seemed to be how long Russia could endure, he said. "Now the question is how long Europe will endure."

Ogorec said that as the conflict in Ukraine has greatly affected energy prices worldwide, European countries have already started pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his administration "to agree to even a bad agreement, just to end the story."

In his view, the situation in Ukraine is in the hands of the United States, and "this suits the Americans," who have gained many benefits, from economic to geopolitical, from this confrontation. "It suits them that the conflict lasts as long as possible" and that is why the United States has provided Ukraine so much support.

However, Ukraine, which has suffered terrible human and material losses, "must start thinking about what to do next," Ogorec said.