MOSCOW, Jan. 12 – The impact of Western sanctions on the Russian economy was stronger that anybody could have expected, financier George Soros has written in an article "A New Policy to Rescue Ukraine" published in The New York Review of Books.

"The sanctions imposed on Russia by the US and Europe for its interventions in Ukraine have worked much faster and inflicted much more damage on the Russian economy than anybody could have expected," Soros said, noting that without a sharp decline in the price of oil the sanctions would not have been so effective.