Apparently many countries were coerced by the Americans to sanction Russia when the Ukraine war started. But many of these countries, including Germany, France and Japan, only sanctioned Russia in words, not in deeds. Many justified their exceptions on national interests and did not sanction Russia at all.
So, how many silly countries really apply the sanctions to the letter as demanded by the Americans? The sanctions in many instances became a joke, very comical, sanction but no sanction. It makes a fool of those silly countries that stupidly apply the sanctions in fear of the Americans and unable to say no to American pressure. The Europeans and Japanese are quietly sniggering at the stupidity of the sanctions. Even the Americans pretended that the sanctions are in place and would be embarrassed to admit that many of these countries are defying the Americans...on the ground of their national interests.
The Americans could no longer arm twist their allies especially those in Europe and Japan to do their biddings but only their little stooges. And Russia is happily selling coal, oil and gas, fertilisers and essential items to any buyers that are willing to pay in Roubles. Even the Americans are buying coal and oil from the Russians, Europeans made a beeline to buy even more. Japan continues as if nothing has changed. They said they would sanction but until their national interests would not be affected.
Simply brilliant of the Japanese and Europeans.
Virtually all of those running dog countries of the USA don't realize that the latter are using sanctions to kill 2 birds with one stone. When you sanction Russia, take oil for example, you are simply increasing your costs for oil, which will cripple your own economy.
ReplyDeleteUSA aim is to control the world, and making its running dogs poorer is definitely ok with them. As they say, there is no cure for stupidity, and in this case, all these countries deserve what they get
EU had already lost the fight to Russia; just dead man walking:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.unz.com/audio/kbarrett_tom-luongo-why-russia-will-win-the-energy-war/
'“This day has been a long time coming. From the moment, more than a decade ago, when it was finally admitted that Europe was destined to be an energy importer, we were going to see the climax of the showdown between the West and Russia.
“Europe as energy importer always meant that time was on Russia’s side. All it had to do was draw the conflict out long enough, survive long enough, to force Europe into submission. Russia has the energy Europe needs, no one else can supply it, therefore the final decision will be to accept this fate.”
Tom says Russian energy and gold will ultimately defeat the Western banksters’ fiat debt currency.'
EU needs oil, gas, coal and food from Russia. Drag the war for another 6 months and EU will be down on their knees to beg Russia for energy and food.
ReplyDeleteThe Americans would not care as they are self sufficient in energy and food. Ukraine has been sacrificed, so would be EU.
All those posturing about the embargo of Russian oil are just laughable. On the one hand countries like Germany are on the verge of a recession without Russian oil, and yet Olaf Schulz is acting tough and saying Germany will be able to cut itself off from Russian oil by end of this year. How is he going to do it without the Middle Eastern producers, Iran and Venezuela producing more? Right now these oil producers are reaping in the bonanza of high oil prices, so why should they produce more to dampen the price? That will be silly.
ReplyDeleteThe USA is itself importing on the sly, and can barely provide 10% of what the EU gets from Russia. So, who else is able to fill the gap? The problem is so daunting that the EU countries are not all convinced that the embargo on Russian oil is a wise move and are hesitant to really go ahead. What we are seeing is a show that must go on to give the impression they have the upper hand, which they do not.
And that brings us to the Ukraine side asking the UN to plead with Russia for a ceasefire, which Russia refused, saying it serves no purpose. Was this Ukraine move a sign of desperation due to shortage of fuel and weapons? A ceasefire will give them time to replenish their supplies, from USA and NATO, a move that the Russians probably can see through.
Even if the EU could find alternative sources of crude supplies, there is no guarantee that their processing facilities can process crude oil different from what they get from the Russians. Then what?
Obviously the geniuses in Washington and Brussels have not thought through their moves properly and just go about it by putting the cart before the horse.
The sanctions are looking like failing to bring Russia down on it's knees. It looks more likely the Europeans are going down on their knees. When Germany drops on it's knees with oil and gas shortage hitting it's manufacturing base, the rest of Europe will follow.
ReplyDeleteThe USA and the West can keep piling on the sanctions on irrelevant things and Russia still holds the trump card - oil and gas. When it comes to that the Europeans are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
The Europeans are shooting their own feet with machine guns by following and being dictated to by the USA.
According to Russian trade stats, US increased imports of oil and gas from Russia by 43% in the month beginning Apr while at the same time pushing for EU and India to stop buying the same commodities from Russia. Hypocrisy?
ReplyDeleteJust like dumb Ukraine in which US only provide sales of military weapons while the destruction of infrastructure and sufferings of people are all mainly Ukrainians, the hit on economies by sanctions will be on the EU.
The inflation in US has more to do with its non-stop printing of money nicely termed "quantitative easing " than by Russia as blame deflection by Biden.
The debt payment in terms of interest rate alone is going to bankrupt the USA. At 1% for US$1 trillion owed to China, that is US$10 billion a year, another US$10b to Japan....
ReplyDeleteThe total US debt is more than US$30 trillion. Interest on this sum is US$300 billion. This is how much the Americans must be paying on debt alone. And they keep printing and keep blowing the debt bubble.
This is the debt trap the Americans set for themselves and unable to extricate out of it. They think they can print themselves out of debt. The truth is the debt gets blown out of proportion and only get worse and worse.
Only way out, don't pay or declare bankrupt!
Now that we know the USA is importing Russian oil, they tried to wriggle out by claiming it was bought on the open market from a trader. What difference does it make as it is still Russian oil and they are propping up the Ruble themselves while asking others to stop buying Russian oil and gas. How hypocrite can they be? And how stupid are those taking the USA word for it.
ReplyDeleteAnother country, Norway, with a shipment of Russian oil was stopped from unloading by activist. Norway claimed that the oil was bought before the Ukraine War. Norway is an oil producer itself and is probably being used by others to go around the proposed embargo by claiming those are not Russian oil after being mixed with those from other sources.
All these smoke and mirrors clearly shows the USA and the West cannot afford to ban the import of Russian oil, even after being forced to pay in Rubles. Want to bet who will blink first?