Moscow to lose 200,000 jobs as Russian economy reels, mayor says

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Moscow is poised to lose 200,000 jobs as the Russian economy reels in the face of Western sanctions over Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, the city's mayor said Tuesday.

The potential job loss comes as Putin attempts to downplay the impact of sanctions, stating Monday that NATO's "economic blitzkrieg strategy didn't work. Moreover, the initiators themselves couldn't get away with the sanctions."

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Sanctions against the Russian economy have only ramped up in recent weeks amid revelations of alleged war crimes the Russian military has committed in Ukraine. 

WARNING, GRAPHIC IMAGE: Bodies dug out of a mass grave in Bucha, Ukraine. Image courtesy of the office of Sen. Steve Daines. (Image courtesy of the office of Sen. Steve Daines.)

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Despite Putin's confidence, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin sounded the alarm for the Russian capital on Tuesday.

"According to our estimates, about 200,000 people are at risk of losing their jobs," Sobyanin wrote in an official blog post, according to a translation from Business Insider.

President Joe Biden and other NATO leaders have pointed to evidence of weakness in the Russian economy since the sanctions began. Russia's Ruble had lost almost half of its value by the second week of March, less than a month after Russia's invasion.

Nevertheless, some Western experts say the sanction campaign is not having the desired effect on Russia's economy despite its economy's weakened state.

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"We have driven up the price of oil with half measures that have not achieved our objectives," Rich Goldberg, an advisory board member at the Vandenberg Coalition and member of the White House National Security Council, told Fox News Digital in March. "Sanctions need to be tailored for the appropriate situation to have the desired impact, achieve a certain outcome. Not all sanctions are alike. Not all sanctions are created equal, and not all situations merit the same type of sanctions response."