Owners warn against sanctions

“Sanctions have never worked,” shipowner George Procopiou told a panel at Capital Link’s Maritime Leaders Summit, a Posidonia event, June 6.

The founder of Dynacom / Dynagas pointed to previous sanctions against Venezuela and Iran. “Iran became stronger and better at being self-sufficient. Venezuelans are suffering and the elite is having a good time,” he said.

Apart from being counter-productive, sanctions also cause confusion, he said. Bankers and financiers make matter worse by being stricter than the regulations themselves.

Evangelos Marinakis, principal of Capital Maritime, stressed the economic fallout of sanctions on inflation and commodity prices. “Instead of trying to find a peaceful solution that will solve this big problem… they’re discussing more sanctions”, said Marinakis. “Instead of penalising Russia, we’re penalising ourselves. Sooner or later we’ll see the consequences… we’re going to have a huge recession in front of us”.

This article first appeared in the Tuesday June 7 2022 edition of Posidonia Today, the show daily publication for Posidonia. Read the full edition here.