Banks, spies, alliances: this is how Russia could circumvent sanctions with the North Korea model

The sanctions imposed by the West on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine are among the toughest ever launched since the war. But the Kremlin, despite the growing threat that Western retaliation includes a total ban on imports of gas and oil, Moscow’s main sources of revenue, does not seem particularly worried for now. One of the possible explanations is that Vladimir Putin hopes to be able to at least partially circumvent the punitive measures, with the help of China and on the model of what has already been done by other countries affected by sanctions, such as North Korea and Iran.